Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld
The best way to characterize Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of the mythical tale of Jason and the Argonauts is as a playground for adults in which theatre artists use every storytelling trick in the book to bring gods, monsters, mortals, and kings to life. Puppets, masks, stilts and aerial silks trade stage time with original music, dashing fight scenes, and flights of fancy in Jason’s epic adventure to find the Golden Fleece.
Each episode has a different gimmick, and director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott uses every ounce of creativity the stage can hold to devise a wildly inventive array of magical effects
Read more…
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way
The poet Ovid wrote his classic Metamorphoses during the reign of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor. In 1996 playwright/director Mary Zimmerman brought ten of the myths to life in a pool of water on stage in Chicago and later Los Angeles and New York. Ten years later she took the tale of Jason and the Argonauts to the stage in Argonautika, basing her tale of their adventures on the epic poem by Greek poet Apollonius Rhodius. Even though the Argonauts sailed across the open sea, Zimmerman did not put her cast back in the water. Neither has director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott in the highly theatrical production which recently opened at A Noise Within in Pasadena. But there are harpies and dragons and flying rams, oh my!
Read more…
Now running through May 5