Sunday, October 17, 1999
Chicago theater proves vibrant storytelling sells
'The Odyssey' an audience adventure
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
I recently wrote a review of a local production of Sophocles' Electra, noting its lack of wonder and the need to awe a contemporary audience just as the ancients were awed.
Then on a weekend trip to Chicago, and purely by chance, I saw a production that did exactly that.
The Goodman Theatre (Chicago's equivalent to Playhouse in the Park) opened its season with a spellbinding, three-plus hour theatrical telling of Homer's The Odyssey. It's been extended twice, now playing through Nov. 8. If a weekend in Chicago is in your plans, see it. It's so filled with wonder it's worth the trip.
What has Chicagoans clamoring for tickets isn't the story of Odysseus and his 20-year journey home from the Trojan War, but its telling. It's both faithful to the original and vividly contemporary.
An example: You might recall that Odysseus' journey takes him past the island of the Sirens. He orders his men to fill their ears with wax to be impervious to their irresistible call. He has himself bound to the ship's mast so he can hear them and escape.
These Sirens are costumed (head to foot in trampy red) as a bride, a girl scout, a novice nun, a spinster — you get the idea. Their call? In unison they coo to the man/victim: “You are so — important. Your life is so much larger than mine. Everything you say is so — significant.”
You laugh, you cringe, your mind's eye holds the image. You're as caught by them as any unfortunate sailor ever was.
That level of vibrant storytelling never flags. Adapter/director Mary Zimmerman makes breathtaking choices, always catching the audience by surprise and delight. She never veers from the story's emotional heart, finding unexpected threads to tie then and now.
Three hours into the adventure you're sitting at the edge of the seat. Do you know how it's going to turn out? Very likely, yes. Does it matter? Of course not.
Ms. Zimmerman is an official genius, being a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation (“genius”) grant. Like another MacArthur grantee, Julie Taymor, she's been toiling away for years in regional theater (mostly in Chicago. Lucky Chicago.)
What's perhaps most significant is the work of both women illustrates that audiences respond to, long for, elemental storytelling. They have discovered the alchemy of the world's great stories told with an understanding of how we live and what we know now. Their work has never been about big budget, but about unfettered imagination.
So I wonder: How scary is it to set off on such a road? Why don't more artists attempt it? Especially artists working with small companies where there's room to experiment and not far to fall if you trip up.
Making this kind — their kind — of art isn't easy. How could it be, when the results can be unforgettable? But why not try?
TROUPE DEBUTS: Welcome another fledgling theater to the local scene. IF — just think of the possibilities — will make its debut with Harold Pinter's Old Times staged at the Southgate House in Newport on Nov. 5 and 6.
“There's something about doing the show in a room of an old mansion that seemed right,” says Benjamin Moss, a Northwestern University grad (his degree is in directing) who arrived here a few months ago and plans to stick around “for at least a couple of years.” He's working with Matthew Pyle (a regular at Stage First) and Althea Warren.
Mr. Moss and company confess to a liking for theater with chops and maybe some site specific work (finding the performing space to fit the play rather than vice versa.) For information and reservations call 221-4723.
"RASHOMON' COMING: The murder mystery Rashomon set in medieval Japan always invites interesting interpretation. Sam Zachary's production at Northern Kentucky University (Thursday through Oct. 31) promises a blend of “contemporay approaches to acting and design” and “traditional Japanese theatrical conventions.” It plays in the Fine Arts Center's Black Box Theater. Box office: 572-5464.
A FEW UPDATES: • Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell will indeed be the keynote speaker at Friday's symposium The Arts: An Urban Business Strategy at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. He just won't be delivering it in person. Mayor Rendell will be addressing attendees by satellite up-link from Philly.
Everybody else, including arts notables from Charlotte, N.C., Pittsburgh and Seattle, will be there in the flesh. The morning session is open to the public. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.
Call CCM's arts administration program office at 556-4383 for reservations (reservations are necessary) and information.
• Human Race subscribers happily called up to say that the un-announced March show at the Dayton theater will be the regional premiere of Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain. Don't miss it, it's a wonderful piece of theater.
• Urban fairytale Beautiful Thing is on the Human Race line-up and it's also on the schedule at Cincinnati Public Theatre. The company opens its third season at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater with the cabaret 6 Women with Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know in December.
Edward Albee's searing classic Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is scheduled for February with Beautiful Thing wrapping up the season in April. Call the Aronoff box office at 721-3344 for more information.
• Actors Theatre of Louisville is keeping mum about its plans for Humana 2000, but the millennial edition of the annual Festival of New Plays is said to include an adaptation of War of the Worlds by festival fave Anne Bogart.
POETRY BENEFIT: Mark your calendars for the Peanut Butter and Tuna Poetry Slam starting at 8 p.m. Saturday at York Street Cafe in Newport.
No, the slam doesn't involve flinging fish along with rhyming words. The event benefits Covington's Welcome House shelter. Registration fee is six cans of tuna, general admission is a 28 oz. jar of peanut butter. (Toothbrushes and other canned goods also will be appreciated.)
It's a three-round elimination event. Winner earns a $30 gift certificate, runner-up a $15 gift certificate. Participation is limited to the first 12 poets who register before 7:45 p.m. An open reading will follow. 921-9039.
Jackie Demaline is Enquirer theater critic and roving arts reporter. Write her at Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH
45202; fax, 768-8330.
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