Argonautika

As in her Tony Award winning "Metamorphoses," Mary Zimmerman transforms Greek mythology here the story of Jason and the Argonauts into a mesmerizing piece of theater. Encountering an array of daunting challenges in their first voyage of the world, Jason and his crew illustrate the essence of all such journeys to follow their unpredictability, their inspiring and overwhelming breadth of emotion, their lessons in the inevitability of failure and loss. Bursts of humor and fantastical creatures enrich a story whose characters reveal remarkable complexity. Medea is profoundly sympathetic even as the seeds are sown for the monstrous life ahead of her, and the brute strength of Hercules leaves him no less vulnerable to the vicissitudes of love. Zimmerman brings to "Argonautika "her trademark ability to encompass the full range of human experience in a work as entertaining as it is enlightening."