THE 1041C Theater Reviews

Down the new age staircase to the BPAC, there sprawls a gray carpet. Around the corner and through the door is an auditorium. On the stage, in the modern amphitheatre there happened to be live performers creating a self-contained drama of sorts, a representational illusion.  The show was an Athenian tragedy by Euripides entitled Medea. I had a tuna melt sandwich for lunch, and had drops of spilled black coffee and cigarette ash on my pants.

I have no precedent to base my analysis for this performance on, and have an extremely limited knowledge of the etiquette of the live theatrical arts. I do believe that each actor made their presence felt on stage, through the means of projection and facial expression. However I will mention that I felt slightly beleaguered by the sonorous dramatics of nearly the entire cast. From a wholly subjective basis, lacking any form of objective one, I am turned off by any form of histrionic bombardment, profuse gesticulation, or hyperbolic facial manipulation. This is probably due to their experience of working vast halls where the visuals have to carry larger distances, but seemed generalized in our intimate context.

I wasn’t completely sold on the sole classical column of set design, not in the least in its brevity, but in its architecture. I remember being fairly sure on the occasion that the column was of the ionic disposition, signifying Roman roots, and not of their Grecian predecessors. Ah but alas, time has weathered the recollection of such trivialities. More importantly, the script seemed to covey the ethical overtones as well as the basic narrative well. I was made aware for the first time how a theatrical chorus actually functions, and for that alone I am indebted to the players for increasing my knowledge/ future experience of the classic literature of the ancient western theatre.

On the whole, I thought the play was well butchered lyrically, that the actors did a proficient job given their experience, and the set design was the perfect compound of Grecian disposition and terse minimalism.