Spring Break
'ICARUS' SOARS WITHOUT WINGS
CRT production dazzles with puppets, actors
Caitlin Mazzola
Issue date: 3/27/09 Section: Focus
Sun rays and puppets and minotaurs, oh my! "Icarus" is a classic tale with a colorful twist.
The Connecticut Repertory Theatre's latest show, a Puppet Arts Production of the classic Greek myth "Icarus," previewed Thursday in the School of Fine Arts' studio theatre. The performance, a menagerie of visual intricacies and skilled acting, presented Icarus' story on stage as a valuable lesson to those who don't listen to their own yearnings, or to the direction of others.
However, don't let the puppets and morals fool you - this is no Sesame Street.
The ancient fable of Icarus is familiar to many. He and his father, Daedalus, an inventor, attempt to escape Crete after a mishap between King Minos's daughter and a bloodthirsty minotaur. Using wings Daedalus crafted from wax and feathers they fly away, but Icarus, ignoring his father, flies too close to the sun and falls to his death as the sun melts his wax wings.
Writers Stefano Brancato and Michael Bush created a slightly different story for the stage, incorporating more characters into the framework and adding a more emotional spin. In this adaptation, the birth of the Minotaur is explained (and graphically portrayed), and King Minos' story is complicated by his unhappy wife, Pasephae. Icarus longs to meet his drowned mother, while Daedalus, terrified of losing his son, imprisons Icarus under his wary gaze. Icarus, meanwhile, plans to escape to the sea.
The play was kept a period piece, so the costuming and the set were based on ancient Greek life. Many of the actors played ensemble parts, like beggars, and were mainly dressed in rags. Icarus' costume was white and airy, suggesting feathers and a need to be free. The set comprised moveable wooden pieces, which looked either like a carpentry studio or a ship, depending on how they were manipulated.
Though the set was minimal, it provided an interesting backdrop to the story. The Minotaur's labyrinth consisted of only three flat panels, but the actors maneuvered the panels all over the stage so the audience could experience the dizzying and frightening effect that the maze had on the characters. The actors themselves also became part of the set. They, with a couple of long blue sheets, became the water during the scene when Daedalus' wife drowned, and made a human archway for the labyrinth.
"It is amazing what they do with so little," said Molly Bahre, a 4th-semester human development and family studies major.
The puppets, contrasting sharply with the minimal set, were breathtakingly detailed, enhancing "Icarus" in a way no other adaptation could. Puppets punctuated many of the scenes - they joined the actors as beggars, or filled the stage as birds. A majestic bull and a lusty cow became the focal points of comic relief. A behemoth-like Poseidon, the most impressive puppet of the play, wreaked havoc on the people of Crete during a scene of tempest.
"I was expecting traditional puppets," said Pooja Perepa, a 4th-semester English major. "But they used different forms, like the shadow puppetry in the Minotaurs' birth scene."
For anyone interested in seeing a beloved tale with an artistic twist, "Icarus" runs today through April 5.
The Connecticut Repertory Theatre's latest show, a Puppet Arts Production of the classic Greek myth "Icarus," previewed Thursday in the School of Fine Arts' studio theatre. The performance, a menagerie of visual intricacies and skilled acting, presented Icarus' story on stage as a valuable lesson to those who don't listen to their own yearnings, or to the direction of others.
However, don't let the puppets and morals fool you - this is no Sesame Street.
The ancient fable of Icarus is familiar to many. He and his father, Daedalus, an inventor, attempt to escape Crete after a mishap between King Minos's daughter and a bloodthirsty minotaur. Using wings Daedalus crafted from wax and feathers they fly away, but Icarus, ignoring his father, flies too close to the sun and falls to his death as the sun melts his wax wings.
Writers Stefano Brancato and Michael Bush created a slightly different story for the stage, incorporating more characters into the framework and adding a more emotional spin. In this adaptation, the birth of the Minotaur is explained (and graphically portrayed), and King Minos' story is complicated by his unhappy wife, Pasephae. Icarus longs to meet his drowned mother, while Daedalus, terrified of losing his son, imprisons Icarus under his wary gaze. Icarus, meanwhile, plans to escape to the sea.
The play was kept a period piece, so the costuming and the set were based on ancient Greek life. Many of the actors played ensemble parts, like beggars, and were mainly dressed in rags. Icarus' costume was white and airy, suggesting feathers and a need to be free. The set comprised moveable wooden pieces, which looked either like a carpentry studio or a ship, depending on how they were manipulated.
Though the set was minimal, it provided an interesting backdrop to the story. The Minotaur's labyrinth consisted of only three flat panels, but the actors maneuvered the panels all over the stage so the audience could experience the dizzying and frightening effect that the maze had on the characters. The actors themselves also became part of the set. They, with a couple of long blue sheets, became the water during the scene when Daedalus' wife drowned, and made a human archway for the labyrinth.
"It is amazing what they do with so little," said Molly Bahre, a 4th-semester human development and family studies major.
The puppets, contrasting sharply with the minimal set, were breathtakingly detailed, enhancing "Icarus" in a way no other adaptation could. Puppets punctuated many of the scenes - they joined the actors as beggars, or filled the stage as birds. A majestic bull and a lusty cow became the focal points of comic relief. A behemoth-like Poseidon, the most impressive puppet of the play, wreaked havoc on the people of Crete during a scene of tempest.
"I was expecting traditional puppets," said Pooja Perepa, a 4th-semester English major. "But they used different forms, like the shadow puppetry in the Minotaurs' birth scene."
For anyone interested in seeing a beloved tale with an artistic twist, "Icarus" runs today through April 5.
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