|
 |
| Every search and purchase you make
from here supports WBUR |
|
|
|
The world premiere of a music theater piece that radically updates the tale of Orpheus, who risked death to rescue the love of his life from the underworld.
"Orpheus X," staged by the American Repertory Theatre
by Bill Marx
|
 |
|
Rinde Eckert. Photo: T. Charles Erickson |
Boston, MA - April 03, 2006 -
Three years ago, director Robert Woodruff and acclaimed composer and performer Rinde Eckert staged the world premiere of "Highway Ulysses" at the American Repertory Theatre. It was an ambitious music theater piece many critics loved. For me, it was beautifully staged, but as drama it was terminally confused and pretentious.
The team is back with "Orpheus X," another update of a Greek myth receiving its world premiere, but this time around the post-modern revisionism is more disciplined, there's less wooden dialogue, and it clocks in at a lean 90 minute length. Even better, this chamber jazz- rock opera is so well sung and performed by a fine cast that the predictable gaucheries -- plenty of ersatz poetry along with video shots of a naked woman running down a hallway or scrawling on a transparent wall -- can be tolerated.
As for Eckert's rewrite of the Orpheus myth -- let's just say it struck me as emotionally thin but still compelling, if only for the blend of music and stagecraft. "Orpheus X" is rooted in late middle age male crisis. A guy faces his fear he is losing his creative touch -- a woman dies so his art can be reborn.
Eckert plays Orpheus, an aging rock star who is stuck in a self-imposed paralysis -- he fell in love with a poet, Eurydice, after seeing her lying in the street, a victim of a traffic accident that kills her. Thus Orpheus spends most of the evening yearning to have a relationship with a dead woman. Despite the distinctive wailing of Eckert, the character is a cliche, and the note of self-pity becomes tiresome.
Far more intriguing are the scenes set in the underworld, where Eurydice learns the ground rules of being dead from a droll queen of the underworld, played with bleak playfulness by John Kelly.
In Hades the characters explore each other's pasts -- and the scenes are also marked by sharp bits of humor. Eurydice can only write with chalk in the underworld because it is made up of compacted dust. Kelly is memorable as queen of the underworld, while, as Eurydice, Suzan Hanson sings wonderfully and creates a complex portrait of a woman who more committed to her art than her life. Eurydice is tempted by the chance to forget the poetry she has written, so she can look at it with fresh eyes. As for Orpheus, Eckert is fine as a brunt-out musician -- less convincing as a man overwhelmed by passion. But the ace band stirs up plenty of vibes: you wish they were given more to do.
"Orpheus X" plays down the musician's death-defying journey to rescue his love, as long as he doesn't look back at her on the way out of hell. Yet Eckert and Woodruff come up with a climax that is so anti-climatic it is unforgettable.
The American Repertory Theatre production of "Orpheus X" runs through April 23, 2006 at the Zero Arrow Theatre in Cambridge, MA. For tickets, call 617-547-8300
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Singer at 100
An exclusive online special explores the controversial work and life of Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. |
|
|
 |
Gauguin's Tahiti Paintings
Take a multimedia tour of Paul Gauguin's Tahiti paintings, including the famous painting, "Where Are We From." |
|
|
 |
Hawthorne at 200
View a multimedia celebration of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 200th birthday. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
