Wurtele Thrust Stage / April 13 – May 19, 2019 Metamorphoses based on the myths of OVID written and directed by MARY ZIMMERMAN from the translation by DAVID R. SLAVITT PLAY GUIDE Inside THE PLAY An Introduction to Metamorphoses • 4 Synopses, Setting and Characters • 5 Responses to Metamorphoses • 7 Notable Excerpts • 8 THE ADAPTER/DIRECTOR Mary Zimmerman • 10 Comments By and About Mary Zimmerman • 11 CULTURAL CONTEXT Water: Nature’s Shapeshifting Element • 15 Myths and Oral Tradition • 16 The Greek Olympians • 17 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For Further Reading and Understanding • 18 Play guides are made possible by Guthrie Theater Play Guide Copyright 2019 DRAMATURG Jo Holcomb GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves CONTRIBUTOR Jo Holcomb Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415 All rights reserved. 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The Minnesota State Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from common humanity. the National Endowment for the Arts. 2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER “I pray you, change me; make me something else; transform me entirely; let me step out of my own heart.” –Myrrha to the gods in Metamorphoses PHOTO: SANGO TAJIMA AND FELICITY JONES LATTA (DAN NORMAN) About This Guide This play guide is designed to fuel up on a play before you see it your curiosity and deepen your onstage. Or perhaps you’re a fellow DIG DEEPER understanding of a show’s history, theater company doing research If you are a theater meaning and cultural relevance for an upcoming production. company and would like so you can make the most of your We’re glad you found your way more information about theatergoing experience. You might here, and we encourage you to this production, contact be reading this because you fell in dig in and mine the depths of this Dramaturg Carla Steen at love with a show you saw at the extraordinary story. [email protected]. Guthrie. Maybe you want to read GUTHRIE THEATER \ 3 THE PLAY PHOTO: ALEX MOGGRIDGE AND LOUISE LAMSON (DAN NORMAN) An Introduction to PRODUCTION HISTORY Metamorphoses 1996: An early version of Metamorphoses, entitled Six Around a pool of water, a woman (1904), adapter and director Mary Myths, is produced at the talks of how bodies can assume Zimmerman theatricalizes the Theatre and Interpretation new shapes, and her words spark stories using language and images Center of Northwestern stories of transformation — from familiar to the 21st century to reach University. the creation of the world to human back to tales as old as civilization. bodies changed into animals and A Therapist helps Phaeton put 1998: Lookingglass Theatre trees — that take place in and psychological language to his Company presents the world around a water’s edge. An ensemble fraught relationship with his father premiere of Metamorphoses of 10 actors transforms again and Apollo. Orpheus and Eurydice at Chicago’s Ivanhoe Theater again to embody figures from Greek acknowledge the many variations on October 25. mythology, from the well-known of their story that have arisen over stories of Midas’ golden touch and more than 2,500 years of repetition. 2001: Making its off-Broadway the self-involved Narcissus to the debut, Metamorphoses opens lesser-known stories of Alcyone’s “Everyone changes. Change is so at Second Stage Theater on grief and Erysichthon’s punishment. necessary, yet so painful,” says October 9. Monarchs and sailors and heroes Zimmerman. “It’s the condition and peasants make choices, good of human life. There will be 2002: Metamorphoses opens and bad, that trigger a physical transformation, and you will grow on Broadway at Circle in the transformation that may turn out old.” In telling its stories of change, Square Theatre on May 4. to be a gift, a curse or something Metamorphoses celebrates the very else altogether. essence of theater — its words, 2002–2019: The play continues humanity, community and ability to to be produced at theaters Basing her play on Roman poet create space for alteration. across the country, including Ovid’s masterwork Metamorphoses, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the story of Eros and Psyche in Edited from the Metamorphoses description Seattle Repertory Theatre, Mark Lucius Apuleius’ Metamorphoses for the Guthrie Theater by Dramaturg Carla Taper Forum, Arena Stage and and Rainer Maria Rilke’s classic Steen, 2018 Guthrie Theater. poem Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes 4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Synopses, Setting and Characters Orpheus must not look back at The Roman poet Ovid wrote Eurydice until they reach the living his epic poem Metamorphoses world — a test he may be unable to endure. between 2 and 8 A.D. In 15 books, he retold around Pomona and Vertumnus 250 stories from Greek and (with Narcissus interlude) The love story of Pomona and Roman mythology that Vertumnus begins with a cameo shared a common theme of by Narcissus, who is so enthralled transformation. Below are by his own reflection in the water that he freezes. Then we jump to brief synopses of the stories Pomona, a wood nymph who is so featured in Mary Zimmerman’s passionate about gardening that Metamorphoses. she ignores her suitors. So the shy, smitten Vertumnus disguises himself in different ways just to Cosmogony be near her. To win her affection, A woman, a scientist and the god PHOTO: ILLUSTRATION OF MIDAS BY WALTER CRANE, 1893 Vertumnus tells her the story of Zeus discuss and speculate on the Myrrha, which helps Pomona creation of the universe. spirit Hunger to give Erysichthon see through his ruse and open an insatiable appetite that yields her heart. Midas disastrous and devastating results. After doing a good deed and being granted any wish he desires by the Orpheus and Eurydice gods, the greedy Midas asks that On her way to marry Orpheus, everything he touches turns to Eurydice steps on a snake and dies. gold. But his wish quickly becomes Distraught, Orpheus travels to the a curse, and he sets off on an underworld and begs Hades to free impossible journey to find a pool of her. Hades agrees on one condition: water that could potentially reverse his fate. PHOTO: DETAIL FROM ORPHEUS LEADING EURYDICE FROM THE UNDERWORLD BY JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE COROT, 1861 Alcyone and Ceyx When King Ceyx embarks on a sea voyage that Queen Alcyone begs him to forgo, he dies in a shipwreck. Overcome with grief, Alcyone goes to the shore and sleeps in the shallow pools — a mournful act that moves the gods to show empathy and transform the couple’s future. Erysichthon Erysichthon scorns the gods and holds nothing sacred, so he has no problem chopping down a tree that belongs to Ceres. In an act of retribution, Ceres commands the GUTHRIE THEATER \ 5 THE PLAY PHOTO: BAUCIS AND PHILEMON BY JANUS GENELLI, 1801 Myrrha Baucis and Philemon CHARACTERS King Cinyras’ daughter Myrrha Zeus and his son Hermes dress habitually refuses her suitors, as beggars and come to earth to Woman by the water so Aphrodite curses her with an discover what human beings are Scientist Zeus, king of the gods intense lust for her father. With like, but no one welcomes them Three laundresses the help of a nursemaid, Myrrha except for Baucis and Philemon. Midas and his daughter has three sexual encounters with Because of the elderly couple’s Bacchus, god of festivity her blindfolded father, who tries to kindness, the gods grant their wish Bacchus’ companion Silenus, drown his daughter in rage when to die at the same moment and Ceyx, a king Alcyone, Ceyx’s wife the truth is revealed. spare their grief. Hermes, god of travel and trade Phaeton Aphrodite, goddess of love Apollo’s son Phaeton is a spoiled Erysichthon and his mother brat who spends his time whining Orpheus Eurydice, Orpheus’ bride to his Therapist about his life, his Vertumnus, god of spring many demands and his adventures Pomona, a wood nymph setting the world on fire. Cinyras, a king Myrrha, Cinyras’ daughter Eros and Psyche Nursemaid, Myrrha’s nurse Apollo, god of prophesy On a mission for Aphrodite, Eros Phaeton, Apollo’s son sets out to punish Psyche for her Therapist great beauty. But in a twist of fate, Eros, god of sex Eros falls madly in love with Psyche Psyche instead. Lies from Psyche’s sisters Q and A Baucis, a poor woman and her own disobedience cause Philemon, Baucis’ husband suffering until the gods intervene and help the lovers’ story end happily. SETTING All scenes take place in and around a pool. Shifts between settings are indicated by light, the actors’ orientation or musical cues. 6 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Responses to Metamorphoses product of an era of uncertainty and a shaken empire, Ms. Zimmerman gives physical life to the forms that grief assumes. These include the insistence on re-remembering that which causes most pain: the final glimpse of a loved face, the moment that swallows a life.