Argonautika

Some years ago I had the pleasure of seeing Mary Zimmerman's stage version of Homer's The Odyssey. Now she has returned with another classic of Greek mythology, telling the story of Jason and the Argonauts and their mission to capture the Golden Fleece. The result, called Argonautika, is a sumptuous feast of the senses and is now at the McCarter Theater in Princeton.

As with The Odyssey, Zimmerman pulls out all the stops. After all, it can't be easily apparent to stage an epic story involving a ship, gods and goddesses, sea monsters, dragons, and harpies on a relatively small stage. All sorts of methods are used, such as puppetry and simple tactics like representing the sea monster as a large green cloth and a pair of balls for the eyes (it sort of resembles a melted Cookie Monster). This production is so theatrical that anyone who has ever worked in the theater, or wanted to, will purr at the ingenuity involved.

An athletic cast of about a dozen plays several dozen roles. The main character, of course, is Jason. He is a hero who is favored by the goddesses Hera and Athena. His father should have been king of Thessaly, but has been usurped by the old Pelias. Fearing that Jason will come after him, Pelias sends him on a fool's errand--to recover the Golden Fleece from the kingdom of Colcis, ruled by the bullish Aeetes. Jason is no idiot, but undertakes the voyage anyway, secure that the goddesses will protect him. He recruits an all-star crew, headlined by familiar names such Hercules, Castor and Pollux, Meleager and others.

They encounter adventures along the way, such as an island where all the men are dead and Jason and company are put to good use, another where a giant challenges all to deadly boxing matches, and they also have trouble from gods who aren't in on the plan, such Boreus, god of the winds, who buffets them about until Athena shouts him down.

The Argonauts arrive at Colcis at the intermission, and the second act becomes the story of Medea, Aeetes daughter. Hera and Athena get Aphrodite to enlist her son, Eros, to shoot an arrow into Medea so she falls in love with Jason and helps him steal the fleece. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of Greek myth will foresee that this does not turn out well.

Zimmerman has used the text of Appollonius of Rhodes, as well as a Latin text by Gaius Valerius Flaccus, but the overall spirit is that of 21st Century America. This makes the dialogue go down easier, but sometimes it's a bit much, such as having Eros chewing bubblegum and greeting his mother with a catch-phrase from a beer commercial that's already stale. It's not modern-dress, but also not rooted in any particular time period, which can be disorienting. The set is a simple wooden box, the costumes kind of generic toga ensembles.

The cast is uniformly excellent. The outstanding members are Sofia Jean Gomez as a very authoritative Athena, who goes nowhere without her ten-foot spear; Atley Loughridge as the ill-used Medea; and Soren Oliver as Hercules, who plays the role with a dash of Dick Butkus. Jake Suffian is Jason, who has a very difficult role as a somewhat bland hero, but anchors the piece well.

Though his is a wonderful evening of theater, it behooves one to brush up on mythology before attending. I'm not exactly up on it all, so at times it became difficult to tell who was who, as many of the character names are similar and since the performers play several parts it isn't always clear who they are at any one time. Also, this is a big story, and some parts are glided over quickly, while there are other scenes that are played meticulously and slowly, which makes for pacing problems. Medea's filicide, which was the basis of an entire play by Euripides, is summed up in a few lines. I understand that this was not the story here, but it seemed a bit rushed.

That's really a minor quibble, though. I've always wanted to learn more about classical mythology and seeing this play fired up that ambition once again.