Metamorphoses (Zimmerman)

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Metamorphoses (Zimmerman)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  5f, 5m

Based on the myths of Ovid
Written and originally directed by Mary Zimmerman

Mary Zimmerman reanimates Ovid’s tales with stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water onstage, this ensemble piece juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change.
  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5f, 5m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Adaptation (Literature), Fable/Folktale
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! 2002 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (Mary Zimmerman)
    Nominee: Three 2002 Tony Awards, including Best Play
    Winner! Four 2002 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play
    Winner! 2002 Drama League Award for Best Play
    Winner! 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play

Details

Summary
Called by Time the “theater event of the year,” Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses brings Ovid’s tales to stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water, Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change. Nominated for three 2002 Tony Awards, including Best Play, Metamorphoses earned Zimmerman a Tony for Best Direction of a Play.

History
Metamorphoses opened on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre on 21 February 2002 after opening off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre on 9 October 2001, directed by Mary Zimmerman. The play originated as Six Myths at Northwestern University in 1996 and received its world premiere at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago on 25 October 1998. Metamorphoses has since been revived professionally several times with members of the original cast, including at the Guthrie Theatre on 13 April 2019.
Cast Attributes
Performing Groups
  • Setting Various settings in Ancient Greece and/or the present.
  • Additional Features No Intermission
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

“Lovely, deeply affecting… it shows that theater can provide not just escape but sometimes a glimpse of the divine.” – Time
“An elegant recounting of some familiar, and some not-so-familiar, Greek myths [that] contemplates – in distinctly modern, highly evocative stagecraft – the relevance of these classical tales to our contemporary world.” – Variety
Metamorphoses is perfect theatrical storytelling that never stumbles or strikes a false note. Zimmerman’s approach is painterly and literary but also acrobatically physical, and the ten-member cast bring it to life, combining athletic movement with beautifully spoken narration.” – Chicago Reader
“The genius of this piece – and I think Metamorphoses is that rare work of collective theatrical genius that deserves wide exposure to a new generation – is that it does not feel so personal that you cannot find your way in, live among its stories and reboot your life.” – Chicago Tribune
“Mary Zimmerman’s beautiful and deeply humane Metamorphoses… reanimates [Ovid’s myths] with a combination of agile storytelling and enthralling stagecraft. Funny one moment, achingly sorrowful the next, Metamorphoses somehow manages both to lift you out of the moment you’re living in and speak to it with piercing directness.” – Wall Street Journal
“Writer-director Mary Zimmerman’s lovely, deeply affecting work… recaptures the primal allure of the theater… It shows that theater can provide not just escape but sometimes a glimpse of the divine.” – Time
“With its emphases on love, loss and the transforming powers of memory and the imagination… the production has been reducing calloused New Yorkers to sobs.” – New York Times

Videos

  • Metamorphoses Behind the Scenes - A Noise Within Theatre youtube thumbnail

    Metamorphoses Behind the Scenes - A Noise Within Theatre

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

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Authors

Mary Zimmerman

Mary Zimmerman

Mary Zimmerman is the recipient of a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play and numerous Jeff Awards (including Best Production and Best Direction). She is an Artistic Associate of Goodman Theatre, a member of Lookingglass Theatre Company a ...

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