Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses brings Ovid’s tales to stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water onstage, Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change.
“An elegant recounting of some familiar, and some not-so-familiar, Greek myths [that] contemplates – in distinctly modern, highly evocative stagecraft – the relevance of these classical tales to our contemporary world.” – Variety
“Metamorphoses is perfect theatrical storytelling that never stumbles or strikes a false note. Zimmerman’s approach is painterly and literary but also acrobatically physical, and the ten-member cast bring it to life, combining athletic movement with beautifully spoken narration.” – Chicago Reader
“The genius of this piece – and I think Metamorphoses is that rare work of collective theatrical genius that deserves wide exposure to a new generation – is that it does not feel so personal that you cannot find your way in, live among its stories and reboot your life.” – Chicago Tribune
“Mary Zimmerman’s beautiful and deeply humane Metamorphoses… reanimates [Ovid’s myths] with a combination of agile storytelling and enthralling stagecraft. Funny one moment, achingly sorrowful the next, Metamorphoses somehow manages both to lift you out of the moment you’re living in and speak to it with piercing directness.” – Wall Street Journal
“Zimmerman’s lovely, deeply affecting work… recaptures the primal allure of the theater… It shows that theater can provide not just escape but sometimes a glimpse of the divine.” – Time
“With its emphases on love, loss and the transforming powers of memory and the imagination… the production has been reducing calloused New Yorkers to sobs.” – New York Times
Play by Mary Zimmerman
