A hip-hop-infused modern farce meets ancient Greece in Mars Mraz's "Greek Row Tragedy," which premieres tonight at Rodey Theater at 7:30.
The tale, a modern adaptation of Euripides' "The Bacchae," chronicles a frenzy of sorority girls sweeping across the nation at the urging of a lewd choreographer seeking revenge, and the attempts of one man to stop the madness.
The play has been in rehearsal for the last six weeks. Hours have been long for the cast and crew, but their hard work will culminate in the play's performance. Mraz, a master of fine arts student in dramatic writing at UNM, wrote the script and composed the music, and theater professor Paul Ford directed it.
"I have an absolutely full and complete feeling about where this is now and its readiness, which is a product of this moment," Ford said. "In this moment, we are ready to go."
The Euripides adaptation features modern stylistic choices such as showing a violent murder that was omitted in the original version and including modern slang in the structure of the Greek tragedy. However, the play retains classical elements such as a choir and the Greek structure of a tragedy. Otherwise, Mraz follows the story almost exactly, creating a modern play with elements of the original.
"Anytime you adapt anything, there are two rules you have to think about right away: One, your adaptation has to stand alone," Mraz said. "People can't come into the show having to have known the
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classical play to understand yours. Two: Why now? Why would I adapt this to modern-day setting? What about this play resonates with the modern time period?. The sexual frenzy of the chorus in the original 'Bacchae' - I just drew comparisons to things like 'Girls Gone Wild' and how the idea of sexual frenzy can translate into the modern era."
The play's musical score and dance number are combinations of today's popular rhythms, which disintegrate into unstructured layers of Greek overtones and chanting.
"Both the music and the dance, they work together," Mraz said. "It starts off with more basic, with hip-hop of the modern era, and slowly descends and arcs into a much more ritualistic, much more primal Dionysian sense of rhythm and beat. It's tracking that arc of losing control - and the same thing with the dance: Each number is a little bit more broken up, a little bit more of frenzy, until you get to the final one, which is really absolute chaos."
Ford's directing brings together the play's elements into a cohesive piece of art.
"The play was extraordinarily challenging for me.. It pushed me out of my comfort zone," Ford said. "For me, it's directing all the dramatic elements, the scene elements, but then trying to have enough broad perspective to see all things that are happening with music and with dance and trying to integrate the rhythm of that so that it fits and grows at the same time the dramatic elements are, so that I can sew it all together in some sort of comprehensive whole."
Crazed sexuality and violence abound.
"It has very direct and powerful and frank language," Ford said. "For that matter, frank visuals with regards to how we treat human sexuality. They won't see any nudes, but they will see giant penises that have been constructed, and blood."
After Friday's performance, Ford and Mraz will hold a panel discussion to address the relevance, craft and technique of the play.
'Greek Row Tragedy'
Through March 14
Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, 2 p.m.
Rodey Theatre
$15/$10 faculty and seniors
$8 staff and students
