It's been apparent since her highly-stylized and acrobatic work in Chicago that director Mary Zimmerman has a unique and captivating theatrical sense. What she's now refined, judging from her current Metamorphoses, is a sense of cohesion and purpose to her storytelling. Not only do we get pretty and witty stage pictures to look at, but this retelling of Ovid's myths has a children's-theater simplicity, and the evening, using interconnected themes and stories, builds to not one but two touching finales.
If Zimmerman lets narration (instead of dialogue) do too much work, and if the head occasionally gets in the way of the heart (the Rilke version of Orpheus and Eurydice; a babbling psychiatrist distracting us from an otherwise hilarious fable about a spoiled brat meeting his dad, the Sun), there are also more moments of subtle wonder than I have space to list.
This was the first play I saw since the events of Sept. 11th, and when it was over I couldn't think of a warmer, more gracious re-entry into the world than this. It was lovely then and, in moving to Broadway's Circle in the Square, Metamorphosis has retained every bit of its poignant grace.
