Playwright: Timberlake Wertenbaker
At: LiveWire Chicago Theatre at the side project, 1439 W. Jarvis
Phone: 773-412-8089; $12-$15
Through: April 29
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
There's a reason many ancient Greek myths don't die. They're timeless tales connecting throughout the centuries, particularly when artists use them as foundations addressing issues of today.
The tragic Greek myth of Philomele certainly proves to be a golden inspiration for The Love of the Nightingale, a 1989 drama by Timberlake Wertenbaker ( represented in Chicago by Our Country's Good and the Vittum Theater's The Ash Girl ) . Even if LiveWire Chicago Theatre's production is uneven under director Glenn Proud ( who is also in the acting ensemble ) , the myth of Philomele still has the power to shock and provoke.
Not heard of Philomele? The myth probably isn't repeated in schools since it is so brutally violent. ( In fact, some of the gruesome elements appear in Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy, Titus Andronicus. )
Philomele and her sister, Procne, are both royal Athenian daughters with an especially tight bond. When Athens is aided by city-state Thrace in a war, Procne is married off to its militaristic king, Tereus, as a political alliance. Procne longs to see Philomele again, so she sends Tereus to bring her for a visit. Unfortunately, Tereus rapes Philomele on the voyage to Thrace, later cutting out her tongue to silence her accusations. Yet Philomele and Procne ultimately reunite and enact a horrible revenge on Tereus, in a form that would make both Medea and Julia Child proud.
Written not long after Jodie Foster's Academy Award-winning turn in the 1988 rape prosecution film drama The Accused, The Love of the Nightingale is Wertenbaker's classical way to use the Philomele myth ( sans the cooking bit ) to question sexual power inequities and the complicity of people ( mostly men ) who fail to speak out when a ruler violently abuses his power—making the play prescient for today.
LiveWire has assembled a largely good cast filled with plenty of standout performances. Danielle O'Farrell navigates the initial innocence and later outrage of Philomele masterfully, especially when played against her worldly wise nurse, Niobe ( Justine Serino in a wonderfully rueful and underplayed performance ) .
Asher Hart, as the brutal Tereus, and Erin Barlow, as the homesick Procne, don't quite have their roles down, though they appear to be just on the cusp of getting this unhappily married couple down just right. A few Greek chorus standouts include M. Glenn Proud and Allison McNeela.
The tiny space of the side project might not give the play enough space to breathe with its oversized emotions, especially on Anders Jacobson's blotchy Greco-inspired set. But the play is still allowed to make its strong case. There's also a bizarre ending when the gods turn the three principals into birds ( hence the title's nightingale ) , but that dates back to the original myth. Perhaps that was the only way to bring about a beautiful ending to such brutal events.