To paraphrase one of the characters in playwright Anna Ziegler’s “The Minotaur,” so many ancient myths have been retold so often that sometimes, the only thing interesting about them are the different angles and perspectives.
In the classic Ovid version of events, the titular creature, part man and part bull, is doomed by the Cretan King Minos to dwell in an underground labyrinth, where he is ultimately betrayed by his half-sister Ariadne and slain by her beloved Athenian prince Theseus.
In Ziegler’s modernized interpretation, references abound to Facebook, iPods and GPS — she retains the bit about Ariadne providing Theseus with a ball of string to help navigate his way in and out of the maze — and the proverbial Greek chorus of the piece is personified by a rabbi, a priest and a lawyer.
Synchronicity Theatre artistic director Rachel May takes that specific joke one step further by casting Muslim actress Suehyla El-Attar as the rabbi, alongside Nicholas Tecosky as the priest and Anthony S. Goolsby as the lawyer. Their droll performances are the life of an otherwise inherently uneven show, a joint world premiere with Washington D.C.’s Rorschach Theatre.
The play is basically cut from the same cloth as Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses” (produced by Georgia Shakespeare in 2006) and Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” (produced by the Alliance in 2008). Both works were rather indelibly staged by Richard Garner, who might have unwittingly ruined this particular genre for any other directors in town.
May’s starkly designed “The Minotaur,” featuring an abstract set by Ryan Bradburn and moody lighting by Jeffery Martin, generally contradicts the gamier aspects of Ziegler’s script. Occasionally snorting, growling or kicking up figurative dirt, Tony Larkin acquits himself moderately well in the title role, but as the unrequited lovers at the center of the story, Rachel Frawley (Ariadne) and especially Brandon Partrick (Theseus) are lackluster.
Mounted at Horizon Theatre, there are isolated stylistic flourishes that linger in the memory: red ribbons used to signify spilled blood; moments of shadow play behind a curtain of white sheets periodically drawn across the stage; a lightning storm; the almost subliminal sounds of dripping water in the Minotaur’s subterranean prison.
As things begin to unravel for the members of Ziegler’s comedic chorus — they start losing control of the myth they’re supposed to be recounting — the narrative focus of “The Minotaur” blurs accordingly and the show gradually runs out of steam. That chorus would have us believe that the purpose of myths is to “explain why things are the way they are,” but in the end we can’t be too sure.
THEATER REVIEW
“The Minotaur”
Grade: B-
Through Nov. 11. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. $20-$25. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave., Atlanta. 404-484-8636. synchrotheatre.com.
Bottom line: Effective in parts.
