Customer Reviews

Metamorphoses: A Play

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3 star:		(1)
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This is the play that should have won this year's Pulitzer, and if there's any justice, the Broadway production will take away a Tony. I can only imagine what this is like onstage, but even in script form it is a poetic, witty, and extremely moving experience. How Zimmerman managed to condense Ovid's sprawling work into this deft stage piece is a mystery, but she has constructed a fluid, fascinating play that transcends genres, race, religion, and politics to speak to the hopes and desires of all human beings. Like "Copenhagen" and "The Invention of Love", this is one of those plays that reminds me why I love live theater. There is hope after all! Buy it, read it, cherish it--and if you're lucky enough to be in New York, GO SEE IT!

This is not a play script in the traditional sense. This is part of the new trend of director-centered theater, where concept is all. In this case the concept is a pool, where several of Ovid's tales of strange-changes-in-the-night take place in and around. This is one of the better examples of concept theater, and it won many awards on Broadway (but not for script). Reading the original Ovid is preferable to reading descriptions of how the pool should be lit, or what music plays through scene changes. But seeing it? If done right, this material could be incredibly visually striking.

I'd advise stage directors to take a peek. This is director-friendly material. Actors, playwrights, and general readers I'd steer towards Ted Hughes' TALES FROM OVID.

Like all plays, this is meant to be seen rather than read. That said, if you have seen the play, the published script beautifully evokes the visuals of what you saw on stage. If you were curious as to the thought processes behind some of the things you saw, this script will satisfy many of those questions.

The play itself is brilliant beyond description. It carries the audience through a range of emotional experiences, and finishes with one of the most beautiful endings I've ever seen in any medium - wild horses could not drag it out of me.

As a classicist whose primary research interest lies in the works of Ovid, I of course recommend reading the original work (the epic poem, Metamorphoses) before reading this script or seeing the play. Doing so will further enhance your appreciation. Having studied Ovid's writing intensively, I can say that I believe Ovid would have appreciated this play; it captures his sense of humor, and his wry and irreverent humor, combined with stark cynicism about the real nature of the world in which he lived.

Like most of Mary Zimmerman's work, in this play, she strips Ovid's Metamorphoses to its timeless essence. It becomes multiple stories of people, gods, love, want, greed, jealousy in a simple set with a pool. I saw the play in Berkeley years ago and just read the play, and it's as wonderful now as it was when I saw it back in 2001.

This play is AMAZING! I saw it twice and HAD to buy the script! WOW!!!! The pool might seem hokey, but it's used so beautifully. SEE THIS PLAY IF YOU CAN! You're truly missing out if you don't. The script has the right lines, but misses the subtlety and humor and beauty that the live production gives. SEE THE SHOW AND BUY THE SCRIPT! KEEP THIS SHOW OPEN!

I am currently involved in this play with my local theatre, and when we first read through the script I was floored. As an actor of Shakespeare I fell in love instantly with the play and the language. Even though we cannot get every amazing visual down pat, the script gives so much to work with. I can't imagine reading this and never seeing it done. But even just to read is amazing.

Metamorphoses: A Play is a stunning book of myth, human mystery, human nature, godly beings, God, self, word symbols and soul.

I was cast in this play and trust me when I say this is a great script. Not because of what it contains- but because of what it doesn't. Mary Zimmerman has left so much of her play open for interpretation, and we certainly took that to heart.

The poetry of Ovid is mesmerizing, and David Slavitt's translation is a must read. But to truly understand the inspiration of this work, see this play and read this script with your mind open.

My high school preformed this show and i must say it was absolutely amazing. Even as just a script, it was fantastic. it is absolutely worth buying just to read the words. the script is fantastic, and the stories are moving, provocative, and beautiful all in their own.

This is indeed one of the best plays i have ever read or been involved with.

Having been someone who has been intimatly involved with this play; I have read it, seen it, and been in it, I can tell you that this is one of the best American plays of the 20th century if not ever.

As for a book, it is amazing. Mary Zimmerman's language is stunningly beautiful; her amalgam of her own language and that of Ovid or Rilke and others is seemless. The words are often profound, and always beautiful.

Small parts of the text are lost without a visual aid, but these are rare and easy to imagine.

We can only hope that Mary Zimmerman keeps writing amazing works of theatre and makes them available to the public.