Someone needs to remind the good people at the Berkeley Repertory Theater that people go to see live theater to see live actors act. Spectacle can be had for under $10 a seat at the local multiplex.
This was a new play about the myth of Jason and the Argonauts adapted from older texts. They journey from Greece into areas of central Asia that are much in the news today.
Argonautika was yet another joint production with other regional theaters. Joint productions allow a company to invest more in the production. Mainly the investment appears to be in the sets and effects. The set, in this case was quite beautiful with simple clean lines. The effects were imaginative and fun to watch. But clearly, human actors acting was an afterthought. The people were props, thrown across the stage whenever the director conjured up a storm. Jason had the wooden delivery of Keanu Reaves or Kevin Costner. The Argonauts, a Greek myth super-group, are mostly barely distinguishable from one another. Perhaps this is intentional -- men are just playthings of the gods or some such, but is made for theater that felt a little Stalinesque.
Almost thirty years ago, K and I saw our first Berkeley Rep production in a storefront in the Elmwood district, an Edward Albee play, I think. The props were a couple of chairs, a table, and a lamp, not much more. I think the program offered them for sale after the show concluded. The actors were local. It was the actors that created the world that they and we inhabited for an evening.
- J
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