Mainstage Gets Wet and Mythic

Love, transformation, and a twenty-foot pool? Ovid never saw that last part coming.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) opens its first Loeb Mainstage show of the year, Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of the classic “Metamorphoses,” tonight at 8 P.M. Directed by Carmel O’Reilly, co-founder of the local Súgán Theatre Company, and produced by Allison B. Kline ’09, the play is this year’s Visiting Director’s Project.

Zimmerman’s adaptation is a compilation of ten ancient Greek and Roman myths, some of which were taken from the original Ovid collection and others which were included because of their theatrical possibilities. She then rewrote the stories to include water as an underlying theme.

“My original idea for the show was myths-in-water and the script was informed from that from the beginning,” writes Zimmerman—who first produced the play years ago at Chicago’s Lookingglass Theater—in an e-mail. “The real unifying thread is the water. Almost all the stories ‘bend’ to the water in some way, use it in some way, are amplified by it in some way. The water acts symbolically or metaphorically or…sometimes just as water.”

LOVE IN THE POOL

Accordingly, the staff of this production of “Metamorphoses” built a pool of water in which much of the action of the play takes place. The construction of the pool was a major undertaking, according to set designer Courtney E. Thompson ’09. The 18 foot by 10 foot pool was built in the lowered orchestra pit and thrust, which led them to remake almost half of the stage.

“Once you’ve gone into the pool in any way, you’re affected by it,” says producer Kline. “It’s part of how [the characters] struggle with love and all these other challenges. Once you’ve been completely submerged, you’re going to come out soaking and not be the same as you were when you went in.”

“This show is all about that moment of realization where someone comprehends something important that becomes a universal truth,” says Matthew I. Bohrer ’10, one of the ensemble members, all of whom take on multiple roles. “All these stories are using transformation as a way of helping people obtain universal knowledge and a universal understanding that they might not necessarily have had.”

“Metamorphoses” is a fantasy, an intertwined web of drama, tragedy, and growth, but according to the creators, it’s really about the transforming power of love.

“There’s this idea of love and the way we love and the way that life is linked to love,” says Nelson T. Greaves ’10, another ensemble member. “There’s a moment in the play at the very end where they say, ‘Let me not outlive my capacity to love. Let me die still loving and thus, never die.’ I think the main idea of the play is that there are all these different ways that we can love and that they’re each beautiful and each entirely different.”

REDEMPTIVE NUDITY

The show has been advertised around campus with witty one-liners such as “Why is he NAKED?” but Kline and O’Reilly hope that audiences will walk away with more than just laughs.

“If people can come to this and just have something really beautiful and hopeful in their lives for a few minutes, I think that’s a good goal,” Kline says. “Theater is important. It can remind you that you’re alive.”

“Metamorphoses” portrays ancient stories of love and transformation, yet, O’Reilly believes, it may also allow those watching to experience similar changes.

“Theater can be redemptive,” says O’Reilly. “Theater can make us think and we can take a moment out of our lives that are moving so fast. This play allows us a moment of introspection and when you leave, you want to give your heart and hold onto those you care about, embrace other people, realize you’re part of a whole world and 2000 years of history—a huge connection.”