items tagged with Euripides

Friday’s world-premiere performance of playwright Tommy Smith’s The Bock Eye – a modernized adaptation of Euripides’ The Bacchae – seemed much longer than the 60 minutes it runs from beginning to end. That’s not, however, because the piece is dull, or because director Saffron Henke’s pacing is too slow. It's because the production is so packed with entertainment and clever and hilarious lines that it seems too much to be contained in just one hour. I enjoyed Augustana College’s presentation of this new work so greatly that I was a bit exhausted at its end, and gasped when I looked at my phone and saw that it was only 8:30; I was shocked that I could laugh so much in so little time.

While waiting for Sunday night's performance of Euripides' Andromache to begin, I contemplated the ways in which Genesius Guild is a Quad Cities treasure. Not that it's necessarily greater than any other local group, but it's definitely unique; performing in the open-air setting of Lincoln Park, Genesius Guild provides a theatrical experience unmatched in the area. In the case of Andromache, the play's genre is also exclusive to Genesius Guild, as the organization the only local theatre group regularly performing Greek tragedy.

Back in 2006, when I composed my first list of a dozen theatre "Essentials" - theatrical talents whose gifts were employed in a number of area productions - I couldn't have imagined that I'd find a dozen new names to add year after year. Well, as 2009 draws to a close, we can officially add another " ... after year" to that sentence.

Not for nothing, but have you seen the size of that freakin' tree that fell in Rock Island's Lincoln Park over the weekend?

For those who don't know, this granddaddy of a tree, which previously stood near the Greek columns of Genesius Guild's outdoor stage, was uprooted during Friday night's storm, just missing the organization's light and sound booth, and crashing directly on top of the park's stage-left risers. Considering the dimensions of the thing - the trunk is almost six feet wide, for Pete's sake! - it's really a sight to see (if it's still there by the time you read this). And it's to Genesius Guild's credit that, thanks to director Michael King's production of Hecuba, it's currently only the park's second-most transfixing sight.

The Prenzie Players' presentation of Euripides' The Trojan Women, adapted by Richard Lattimore, runs just over an hour, and I can't imagine who would want it to last longer than that. There's so much anguish and grief on display, and the material appears so deeply felt by director Jill Sullivan-Bennin's cast, that the production leaves you not just haunted, but shaken; it's questionable whether either the actors or the audience could endure two hours of such extreme emotional states.