Breathtaking. Awinspiring. Beautiful. These are just a few words that came to my mind after experiencing this year’s fall play Metamorphoses.
Mary Zimmerman’s rendition of the classic Ovid Poem, which was made up of stories about greek gods, transformed into an play which Wilson’s theater department decided to take on this year. Some of these stories include the tales of Midas, a rich man who lets his greed get the best of him, Ceyx, a man who decides to leave his wife to go on a voyage, and Orpheus and Eurydice a lovelorn couple who faces tragedy.
Before seeing the show, I knew barely anything about the play, but by the end I felt that I had a full understanding of all the different stories and how they intertwine. The acting was remarkable, and each and every person in the cast applied emotion and feeling into each line they recited. The set was astounding, as they incorporated a pool (quite risky I might add) in this years show, which took it to a whole new level. This year, the players also decided to incorporate live music into the show, which was subtle but was perfectly timed and necessary. The show also had a mixture of witty moments, which added a few laughs into the show.
One of my favorite scenes would probably be when Ceyx took his army of men out to sea, where he and his men had a confrontation with the god of the sea Poseidon. The acting in this scene was absolutely astonishing, as well as the subtle but appropriate choreography that was implemented. Another one of my favorite scenes was the opening scene with Midas and his daughter. In this scene, we see Midas, an extremely wealthy man, boasting about his wealth. Even though he is filthy rich, he wants more, so he makes a daring wish to have everything he touch, turn into gold. When his jumpy daughter jumps into his arms, Midas faces the extreme backlash of this wish as his daughter turns into gold.
This scene stood out to me because I felt that I could connect it to our current president. You could call our president greedy to say the least, and he tends to face quite a lot of necessary backlash. Midas reminded me a lot of our president and the people that we have in power today. This made the scene very appropriate and powerful.
Overall, Metamorphoses was an unforgettable and outstanding play that more than exceeded my pretty high expectations. As much as the play had witty humour, I think the thing I got the most from it was how I was able to connect some of the stories to my life and to other lives. Each of the stories symbolized something different, that were important and necessary. Once again, the Wilson Players have awed us all.