Today was the first rehearsal for the extremely underrated show, Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman. It is being performed at Imagination Stage. Metamorphoses is a collection of short stories based on Greek Mythology. There are some characters that are Gods that reappear throughout the show and there are some humans, lowly mortals, if you will. Although a lot of people know the plots for most of the stories, Metamorphoses has a different, much more intriguing premise and puts all the well known stories in a new light.
The show starts off with the popular story of greed and disaster, Midas. Midas is a selfish, rich man who is paid a visit by a drunkard named Silenus. Midas allows Silenus to stay in his cabana, and for this, the God Bacchus grants him a favor. Midas asks for everything he touches to be turned to gold. This, as you can probably predict, goes horribly wrong when he picks up his daughter and she turns to gold. Realizing his mistake, Midas begs for this power to be taken away. Bacchus reveals that there is one way. If Midas walks to the end of the Earth and washes his hands in the pool, there is a chance that everything could be undone.
Midas transitions into the story of a ship captain and his wife, Alcyone and Ceyx. Ceyx sets sail with his crew and dies in an encounter with Posideon, leaving Alycone a widow. Aphrodite, taking pity on Alcyone, sends a represenation of Ceyx's death to Alycone in her dreams. Upon waking, Alycone turns into a bird to meet her partner and be able to spend eternity with him.
The cute story of love is followed by Erysicthon, a story of a man overcome by hunger. Erysicthon chops down a tree that is sacred to the Goddess, Ceres. When Ceres is informed of this, she sends Hunger to haunt him. The next day, Erysicthon is plagued with so much hunger, that he resorts to eating his own foot.
The story of Erysychthon transitions into the contrastingly well-known tale of Orpheus, a god-like musician who loves the beautiful Eurydice so much that after she dies, he follows her to the realms of the dead and pleads for her release. Hades, the god of the underworld, agrees to his request – but only if he manages to not look back at her following him. When Orpheus fails, Eurydice is returned to the world of the dead forever.
This story of doomed love is followed by a love story that ends more successfully. The god of springtime, Vertumnus, is so drawn to the wood nymph Pomona that he dons a series of disguises in order to plead his own case with her. In one of those disguises, he tells her the story of Myrah. Myrah was a girl who ignored all her suitors, and was cursed for it by Aphrodite. The curse made her fall in love with her own father, a love which she cannot escape. Hearing this, Pomona sees through Vertumnus' disguise and tells him to take it off.
This story is followed by that of Phaeton, the son of the god Apollo who is so desperate to prove that he is who he says he is that he foolishly and recklessly decides to follow in his father’s path of guiding the sun across the sky, an escapade that results in tragedy. A key point to note about this story is that it is told in a very contemporary way, with Phaeton describing what happened to a character referred to as The Therapist, and who speaks in contemporary terms common to the practice of psychotherapy.
The piece’s two final stories return to the theme of love. The second-to-last story is that of the god of love (Eros) and a goddess-like embodiment of the soul (Psyche), and how their love survived a series of challenges so powerfully and so beautifully that the god Zeus turned them into stars, and enabled them and their love to live forever.
The final story in the play is that of Baucis and Philemon, an elderly married couple whose compassion and hospitality to a pair of disguised gods earns them an eternal gift.
As the story of Baucis and Philemon ends, the play returns back full circle to the character of King Midas, who reapperas, having done what the Gods asked of him in order to dispel the golden touch and reunite with his loving daughter. With their embrace, the play comes to its end.