Playwright: Eric Appleton
At: International Theatre of Chicago at National Pastime, 4139 N. Broadway
Phone: (773) 250-7055; $18
Runs through: Oct. 30
One wonders a couple things about the suitability of a theater company to render a modern-day version of classical Greek myth. The first thing to make one pause is perhaps the misspelling of the heroine's name on the program and in the marketing materials (the press release had it right: Iphigenia, not Iphegenia). Gee, such a basic thing and they can't get the main character's name right? It may seem like a petty quibble, but such lack of attention to detail doesn't bode well.
The other thing that made it hard to get past the obviously ambitious aims of playwright Eric Appleton and director Patrizia Acerra was the language the former chose to have his characters use. This story, an updating of Greek mythology (more about the story later), has landed in a diner in the 1950s. While I have no problem with updating a classic to make it more 'accessible' to modern audiences (as the playwright states in the press materials), I do have a problem with not doing the real work such an update entails. Having the characters speak in the stilted, highly formal language of a translation of the original tale seems an odd choice. Why, with the goal of making the story more 'modern' and 'accessible' would you not have your characters speak in the vernacular of the era you've chosen to place them in? The dialogue is off-putting, distracting, and at odds with the detailed '50s set design (by Tony Adams) and musical choices (Kourtney Vale did the wonderful sound design). It's as if Arthur Laurents, in writing the book for West Side Story, had decided to have the Jets and Sharks speak in Shakespearean couplets, their dialogue structured around iambic pentameter.
It's too bad that the playwright didn't complete the 1950s picture with something as central as how his characters speak. One has to wonder: why update it at all if you're not going to go all the way? Why not just present a good production of the original? For me, that's a question that's never convincingly answered.
And that's a shame, because this atypical Greek myth is a fascinating story that incorporates blood sacrifice, murder, loss, and miraculous survival. Unlike most Greek myths, the story of Iphigenia in Taurus (here in Kingman, AZ), is one in which most of the action takes place off stage (everything crucial to the story, including Iphigenia's attempted murder at the hands of her father) and has already happened at the play's beginning, which, in a way, ignites our imagination even more than if we actually were able to see the incidents. The misfortunes plaguing the characters in Euripides original are different from most of Greek myth in which tragedy looms large; here tragedy almost happens, no one dies or comes to great misfortune, which in a way makes the tale even more compelling.
The story of Iphigenia could be compelling, especially brought up to the 20th century, but in order for an update to be valid, it needs continuity and credibility. In spite of some deft staging and inspired performances, Iphigenia in Kingman has neither.