Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

IPHIGENIA... currently in production at WalkerSpace, is a remarkable work; Caridad Svich, its archaeologist, excavating layers of myth and history to forge a very personal vision. The play takes from Euripides, not only its theme, a father's sacrifice of his daughter for a favorable political outcome, but its penetrating poetic style as well.

As the play begins, we see the family at dinner: the father, General Adolfo of some South American Country, his martini-sloshed wife Camila, and the doted on, unseeing , privileged Iphigenia. It is her birthday and tonight there is a rave party for her at a converted airplane hangar, with Achilles, an androgynous rock star, as the main attraction. We learn, too, that General Adolfo (Gregory Waller) is behind in the polls. The death of a daughter at a wild party, would do much to secure his re-election. Who would turn a man who'd lost a daughter out of office“ Whether the reference is to Argentina or Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba... the landscape is one where a people has turned on its children.

The character, Iphigenia, beautifully portrayed by Brina Stinehelfer, sets out for her party. She is at turns haughty, unfeeling, guilt-ridden, generous, vulnerable, lustful, resigned - as she moves from innocence to understanding, from daughter to expedient end. The shape of her journey is her route to the hangar. Here she encounters a survivor, Violeta Imperial (Susannah Melone) and the ghosts of survivors, the 3 Fresa Girls, a male chorus. Underscoring the events, too, is the character News Anchor (Nick Flint) like Robin Leach, commenting on the lives of the rich and famous. At the party she falls for the lure , the super sexed Achilles (Danny Bernardy), she partakes of his drugs and comes under his sway. She has been seduced by pop culture's iconic hero - the hermaphrodite superstar who is dying of AIDS.

You're right - there is A LOT going on here. BUT It is good stuff , if a little didactic. All of the performances, in multiple parts, are totally committed. Music, movement, and video are integrated as parts of speech. The set design and spectacular lighting amplify and support the complex imagery of the play. Credit must also go the to direction of Ianthe Demos, who, like Ariadne, provides us with that magic ball of thread capable of leading back from ancient Greece to contemporary culture.