Metamorphoses
by David R Slavitt, Mary Zimmerman

BroadwayOff-Broadway
Metamorphoses Book Cover
Metamorphoses Cover

Highlights

90 minsEnsemble CastExpandable CastingFlexible Cast SizeUnit Set/Multiple SettingsAmericanAdaptation

Awards & Recognition

Drama Desk AwardDrama League AwardLucille Lortel AwardTony Award

Winner! 2002 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (Mary Zimmerman) Nominee: Three 2002 Tony Awards, including Best Play Winner! Four 2002 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play Winner! 2002 Drama League Award for Best Play Winner! 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play

What readers are saying

Readers are enchanted by the unique adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, praising its mixture of humor and emotional depth. The play's structure allows for a seamless transition between mythological stories, and many recommend seeing it performed to fully appreciate its impact. While some express concerns about the accuracy of the myths, the overall sentiment is overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the beauty of the writing and staging.

Beautiful language and imageryStrong emotional depthEngaging adaptation of mythsHighly recommended for performancesSome myths lack accuracy

Synopsis

A beautiful and deeply humane reanimation of Ovid's myths Called by Time the "theater event of the year," 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.

Nominated for three 2002 Tony Awards, including "Best Play," Metamorphoses earned Zimmerman a Tony for "Best Direction of a Play."

Press Reviews

"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

"Writer-director Mary 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

Characters

Character
WOMAN BY THE WATER
SCIENTIST
ZEUS
THREE LAUNDERESSES
MIDAS AND HIS DAUGHTER
SILENUS
BACCHUS
CEYX, A KING
ALCYONE, HIS WIFE
HERMES
APHRODITE ERYSICHTHON AND HIS MOTHER
ORPHEUS
EURYDICE, HIS BRIDE
VERTUMNUS, GOD OF SPRINGTIME
POMONA, A WOOD NYMPH
CINYRAS, A KING
MYRRHA, HIS DAUGHTER
NURSEMAID, HER NURSE
PHAETON
THERAPIST
EROS
PSYCHE
QAND A
BAUCIS, A POOR WOMAN
PHILEMON, HER HUSBAND

Videos

Metamorphoses Trailer - Guthrie Theater

Publication

Year2002
BindingPaperback
Edition1st
Pages120
PlaceEvanston, Ill.
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-139780810119802
ISBN-100810119803
LCCN2002002675
LCCPS3576.I66 M47 2002
DCC812/.54

Metamorphoses is a American adaptation play written by David R Slavitt and published by Northwest University Press in Evanston, Ill. (2002).

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Rating

4.1

3k ratings·5k reviews

Review

Buy Play

1st

Northwest University Press · 2002 · 120 pp

From C$12.00

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