Offscript - The Greek system

If Brad Pitt can do it, why not Atlanta’s Adam Fristoe?

Both actors will play the mythological hero Achilles, although their aims couldn’t be more different. Pitt provides a conventional take on the hot-headed, heel-challenged hero in the upcoming would-be epic film Troy. But Fristoe offers Achilles as a transgendered glam rock star in Caridad Svich’s Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart (a rave-fable) opening Jan. 22 at 7 Stages.

Greek drama and mythology laid the foundations for theater and every other kind of storytelling, and still shows a lot of life. Young artists — and those with “young” sensibilities — frequently revisit classic stories and myths to connect timeless tales with contemporary audiences. Plus the grandeur of Greek themes can also lend gravitas and credibility to a lightweight image (Pitt’s Achilles comes to mind).

Svich’s upcoming world premiere typifies the impulse, both locally and nationally, to update the Greeks. It’s not a new thing, since writers have put their own stamps on the classics since the classics first appeared. In a way, though, it’s always a new thing, since new interpretations reflect the passions of the times.

Svich’s “rave fable” takes its source from Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, in which the Greek warlord Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to appease the gods and send the Greeks off to the Trojan war. In Svich’s modern-language extrapolation, Iphigenia (Heather Starkel) is a celebrity daughter in an unnamed Latin-American country who tries to escape her impending doom by immersing herself in the modern rave scene. Director Melissa Foulger’s production converts 7 Stages’ back stage space into a rave party warehouse, complete with techno music and glow sticks, with the action taking place in and among the audience.

It’s not how Euripides did it, but authentic Greek drama, with its masked actors and choruses, proves thoroughly alien to modern audiences. Just as Svich’s Iphigenia uses the rave scene as the gateway to a classic text, so will VisionQuest’s Medea: The Fury (March 19-April 12 at the Art Farm) use kung fu as a contemporary hook to the Medea tragedy. Director Montica Pes says Medea’s inspiration derives from the acclaimed Broadway run of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, a high-concept version of Ovid’s transformation myths of Ovid.

Scripters Jim Davies and Xiao Gong Ji start with the Medea story from both the Jason and the Argonauts myth and Euripides’ tragic play. The VisionQuest version will turn the tale into an allegory of East meets West that includes martial arts fighting, trapeze, puppetry, Japanese dance and samples of contemporary pop songs.

Ancient Greek plays (and public domain laws) give theaters license to take such massive liberties. Shakespeare also recounts archetypal characters and conflicts, but his words stay fixed. You can translate a Greek text into language as high or as slangy as you need. Playwright Charles Mee specializes in revamping the Greeks — last fall Out of Hand Theater staged Big Love, Mee’s take on Aeschylus’ The Suppliant Women, as an over-the-top outdoor wedding.

Greek stories provide more than just vehicles for wildly theatrical stunts. Playwrights apply ancient themes to modern life. Such plays as Neil LaBute’s Bash, presented at Theater in the Square’s Alley Stage in 2001, apply Greek situations to modern life. The titles of LaBute’s monologues “Medea Redux” and “Iphigenia in Orem” reveal their classic sources. Atlanta playwright (and former Creative Loafing editorial coordinator) Steve Yockey explicitly recounts the legend of the Gorgon as a metaphor for a modern woman’s life in his play “Medusa,” staged last fall at New York’s Vital Theatre.

Fresh takes on the classical canon will accompany the changing times — the Greek canon turns out to be a gift that keeps on giving. Perhaps we should let bygones be bygones about that Trojan Horse.

Matchmakers

Two Atlanta theaters recently measured up to lofty financial targets. In December Theatrical Outfit reached its fundraising goal of $4.9 million, including a $750,000 Woodruff Foundation challenge grant. The Outfit will use the money to commence its long-awaiting renovation of Herren’s restaurant, to be renamed The Balzer Theater in honor of Bill and Peg Balzer’s gift of $1.375 million.

In addition, the Georgia Shakespeare Festival exceeded a $50,000 fundraising challenge, and consequently ended 2003 in the black for the first time in five years.

curt.holman@creativeloafing.com

Off Script is a biweekly column on the Atlanta theater scene.