Georgia Shakespeare’s ‘Metamorphoses’ mesmerizes again

Through July 21. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays (excluding July 4); 2 p.m. Sundays; 2 p.m. Saturdays (June 29 and July 6); 7 p.m. Sundays (June 30 and July 7); 8 p.m. Tuesday (June 25 and July 16). $15-$45. Conant Performing Arts Center at Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-504-1473, www.gashakespeare.org.

Bottom line: Lightning strikes twice.

Producing artistic director Richard Garner’s original 2006 Georgia Shakespeare staging of “Metamorphoses” was a critical and popular triumph of somewhat mythic proportions — fittingly enough, in that Mary Zimmerman’s episodic play is based on a dozen or so Greek myths by Ovid.

Weathering a storm to rival that which befalls King Ceyx in the show and going through proverbial hell not unlike Orpheus, whose story is also covered, Garner and company have struggled just to stay alive in these trying economic times of late. To wit: For the first summer in 20-odd years, rather than performing a rotating repertory of three shows, the group is putting all of its admirable efforts and resources into a single production.

That it would be a remount of "Metamorphoses" is definitely enticing, if hardly surprising. Given the monumental success of that earlier staging, what is rather unexpected (and such a joy to report) is that the new version would hold up as boldly and beautifully as it does in comparison. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, theatrical lightning does indeed strike twice.

The centerpiece of Kat Conley’s scenic design is a highly touted 24-foot swimming pool, around and in which the various vignettes unfold, and Garner achieves some amazing and hypnotic moments with all that water. A depiction of Ceyx’s violent shipwreck is obviously the splashiest of them.

In other cases, the effect is more contained — a scene in which the dearly departed Ceyx and his grieving widow Alcyone, somehow perched atop the water, transform into sea birds, or one in which the tears of Orpheus literally rain down on him.

Recounting his story (to a psychobabbling shrink on deck) about a fateful chariot race that set the world on fire, Phaeton lounges in the pool stretched out on a rubber float. In the environmentally conscious tale of Erysichthon, who angers the gods by cutting down a sacred tree, at a certain point his mother plunges beneath the surface an aged woman, only to re-emerge minutes later as the perky adolescent incarnation of her former self.

Among a handful of other roles, she’s played by the estimable Carolyn Cook (celebrating her 20th season with the company), one of four returning cast members from Garner’s 2006 production. Also back on board are Park Krausen (gracefully playing everything from majestic goddesses to the fetching wood nymph Pomona), Joe Knezevich (most memorably as the short-sighted Midas and the smitten Vertumnus) and Chris Kayser (as several father figures and in occasional comic relief).

With no disrespect to the new additions to the ensemble — Kristin Butler, Barrett Doyle, Neal A. Ghant, Ann Marie Gideon, Tess Malis Kincaid and Travis Smith — it’s mildly disappointing that the likes of Crystal Dickinson, Brandon Dirden, Chris Ensweiler, Bethany Anne Lind, Daniel May and Courtney Patterson aren’t present to relive their own moments of glory from the original show.

Enhanced by the haunting stylistic contributions of lighting designers Mike Post and Liz Lee, composer Kendall Simpson and sound designer Clay Benning, Garner re-creates all of the striking imagery that distinguishes “Metamorphoses,” then and now. Not merely arresting visually, though, it’s the universality of these morality tales that rings most profoundly true and moving.

Whether myths are public dreams or dreams are private myths, as one character in the play observes, consider the show a veritable gift from the gods.