Hit Or Myth?

COCTEAU described his 1926 play Orphee, an adaptation of the Greek myth, as "part farce, part meditation on death." While the Adams House version retains much of the original's structure, Cocteau's description doesn't really hold up.

Orphee

Written by Jean Cocteau

Adapted and directed by Mark Prascak

At the Adams House Kronauer Space

Tonight and tomorrow night

Mark Prascak, who set Peer(less) Gynt in the Adams House pool last month and painted his set--and actors--green in last year's The Dream Play, directs the myth of Orpheus and Euridyce mainly for laughs.

Cocteau wove overt references to popular culture into his adaptation of the classic. Hints of thrillers, dime romances and detective films abound in the tale of the poet Orpheus's (Jim May) descent into Hades and return with his bride Eurydice (Magdalena Hernandez). Prascak, perhaps true to Cocteau's intentions, begins the play with a Madonna medley and transforms Death (Jennifer Lyn Bader) into a lovely Material Girl in white.

Unlike Peer(less), the production of Orphee can't be faulted for excessive length. In fact, Prascak compresses all the action--including journeys from Earth to Hell and back again and then to Heaven--into less than an hour. Scenes, events, allusions and jokes fly by altogether too fast. And Prascak too often seems less concerned with making the myth relevant than with, say, an allusion to Alice's Restaurant.

PRASCAK transports his Orphee to Harvard Square and packs his script with local references--to eating establishments like Au Bon Pain and Steve's Ice Cream (which Death happens to manage). These touches are rarely intrusive and sometimes quite necessary.

For, the most part, Prascak maintains Cocteau's scene structure and characters. His major switch is to replace a talking horse with a small Oscar the Grouch figure, the same Muppet that starred in The Dream Play. This horse-turned-Muppet opens the play with cryptic messages that provide Orpheus with poetic inspiration. It is helpful to keep in mind that this--like much of what else is odd in the production--is weird thanks to Cocteau, not Prascak.

Cocteau's adaptation added further to the ancient myth with the character of Heuteboise (Don Carleton), a guardian angel who doubles as a glazier. Prascak makes him a dilivery boy for Pinocchio's Pizza, a change that provides plenty of material for the rest of this strange brew of banality, magic and myth. For instance, Euridice's fatal step is taking a bite of a mushroom slice. In one of Prascak's sillier insertions, her death occurs after she hands out several freshly delivered slices to the audience.

NONE of Prascak's productions have been marvels of polish--their appeal has had to do mostly with manic humor and risk-taking. In Orphee, the small stage in the Kronauer Space not only limits the action, it also limits the actors. On opening night, at least, the players showed some awkwardness maneuvering around the table and chairs. It didn't help the smooth flow of the show that guardian angel Carleton, due to unfortunate (and bizarre) circumstances, had to hop about in a cast. The handicap did, however, contribute to the dramatic tension--will he or won't he make it up to the high platform? Carleton's sidekick character, Heuteboise, is hilarious.

The cast does fairly well in demanding roles. Prascak's script calls for difficult switches between disparate modes--such as clever word play and campy melodrama--and the actors always maintain their composure. Especially good were Bader and Adam Hyman, who played Raphael, Death's assistant. Although the procession of scenes was somewhat disjointed and hasty, an intervening week of rehearsals has probably smoothed many of the difficulties.