Freaks and Greeks

Charles Mee's Iphigenia 2.0 has divided the critics. Some, whom I greatly like and respect, have strongly disliked Mee's postmodern rewrite of the Euripidean tragedy. Others have been tepid or mixed. But don't listen to them! Believe the guy I sit next to:Adam Feldman, who mightily loved the production at Signature Theatre Company, the first in a season devoted to Mee. I wholeheartedly second Adam's review. This is a dynamic, inventive, thrilling staging of a jagged, urgent text. It jumps. It crackles. The set, costumes and lights (by Blythe R.D. Quinlan, Anita Yavich and Scott Zielinski) alone are enough to get the blood pumping. But the performances are all excellent as well. Tom Nelis (with whom I trod the boards back in 1997 in Richard Foreman's Pearls for Pigs, and who you can see above about to sacrifice the amazing Louisa Krause) makes Agamemnon a study in decaying dignity. And who knew that Kate Mulgrew could do postmodern so well?

My profile of Mee in TONY is here, for those of you not familiar with his work. Get down to the Signature, which is keeping all tickets for the run (not the one-week extension in October, mind y0u) an affordable $20. I think Tina Landau did a fantastic job with this show, delivering a smart, cohesive production that looks more like something you'd see at New York Theatre Workshop or American Repertory Theatre in Boston than midtown Manhattan, where the theatrical modes are basically naturalism or garish Broadway spectacle.

UPDATE: My esteemed colleague (and editor) Elisabeth Vincentelli also has good things to say about the show. Yes, we are Mee fans at TONY.

Comments

[Joshua James]

Hey, something else we have in common . . . I also trod the boards with Tom Nelis, back in 94 in Anne Bogart's MARATHON DANCING . . .

[John]

I was surprised by the Times review - haven't read any other negative ones. The show really resonated with me, so much so that I did something I haven't done in a long time: send an email to a bunch of friends and people I barely know imploring them to go see it, on top of chiming in for Gothamist.