Parallel 45 Theatre, 2011
By Mary Zimmerman
Choreographed by: Justin Perez
Dramaturg: Kristina Corcoran Williams
Production Designer: Megan Caplan
Costume Designer: Logan Woodruff
Light Designer: Brian Elston
Associate Director: Molly Bain Frounfelter
Featuring: Katherine Dillingham, Fiona Carey, Alana Harrison, Noah Durham, Molly Bain Frounfelter, Ana Luderowski, Jon Mazer, Laura Mittelstaedt, Justin Perez, Logan Woodruff, Jody Burns
Program Note: I have a good friend who was left by her husband of many years without warning. She speaks of that time openly. Her life, which up to that point was unchanging and safe, was in a period of destruction–of transition. Her foundation— all that held up the house of her life— crumbled in a moment.
When change hits without warning, that which we know—that which is safe— is destroyed, leaving before us a future that is dark, blank, with no light to guide us. The monster under the bed, the dim corners of the basement, your dog barking into the shadowy woods; these are all frightening due to the lack of light. The excruciating pain of change comes from what we can’t see in front of us, what is unknown, and what we can’t control. These kinds of transitions (death, divorce, terrorist attacks, car crashes, snake bites ) make people feel as if they don’t have access to their own control rooms, like they don’t have agency over their own lives.
Mary Zimmerman takes us into the world of Greek mythology not to be boring or to prove how smart she is, but to investigate the nature of how people cope with the destruction that is connected with change. So, as the summer comes to an end, we revisit these age-old stories to collectively ask: in obliterating times of darkness, how do we cultivate faith?
