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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1999)
Page 12 Thursday, December 2,1999 -------- --:-:-: —— . • -. - - - -■ * ’ -— ■ mm ' ' . Greek play revamped to a ’90s-style modernity By Jason Hardy Senior staff writer Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll - what a concept. It’s hard to say who first combined all three elements, but it could have been a Greek play wright named Euripides who’s been dead for gazillions of years. Well, that is if you ask the cast and crew of the latest Theatrix performance, “Dionysus in ’99.” Of course, their adaptation of Euripides’ classic Greek tragedy, “The Bacchae,” is not so much sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll as it is simulat ed sex, a fog machine and ambient, booty-shak ing techno jungle-funk. Euripides, rest in peace. “Dionysus in ’99” is essentially a Greek tragedy with a ’ 90s twist, or bend - depending on how you look at it. The cast, featuring both men and women characters, consists completely of women with hairy armpits in tight men’s cloth ing, such as undertanktops. Add to that the aforementioned fog machine, spontaneous and sensual choreography and pul sating techno beats, and you’re left with a far cry from traditional theater. Of course, according to director Sonali Zooey Kumar, that’s the idea. “I’m tired of seeing theater in an area that doesn’t speak to college kids,” Kumar said. “This was kind of like my way of bringing it back to my people.” She said the decision to have an all-female cast was based on the desire to incorporate more angles into the performances. “Working with the idea of ambiguity and gender is something you can play with,” Kumar said. “When does gender stop being an issue?” The basic elements of the story deal with the struggle between logic and passion. Most of this struggle is illustrated through the actors’ bodies as about 75 percent of the performance contains movement This is almost a necessity when considering the set’s basic nature. It is composed merely of a large glossy black circle with a sandy edge and a few miscellaneous piles of rocks and pillar seg ments surrounding the area. “We talked a lot about a Zen garden having areas of chaotic nature,” Kumar said. “So you have that tension between chaos and order, chaos and order.” Mollie Cox, a theater performance major who plays Dionysus, said it was hard developing her character simply because real-life references basically don’t exist “It’s not the easiest thing to play a god,” said Cox. “Also, integrating die movement within the words was crazy. It was very challenging. We’ve been doing a lot of ballet and then warping the movements.” ' Theater Preview The Facts HCZa What: “Dionysus in “99" Where: Studio Theatre, Temple Building, 12th and R streets When: 7:30 tonight through Sat., 1 p.m. Sat. Coat: $4 The Skinny: A classic Greek tragedy condensed and given aSOs spin with more lights and techno music than Studio 54.__ All things considered, “Dionysus in ’99” promises to be a show like no other, but despite its almost abstract nature, Kumar claims it is wall suited for today’s audience. “I hope people really enjoy the show because [ think it finally relates to how sophisticated audiences are,” Kumar said. “I think with this show we’ve exploded the boundaries. I think this is absolutely a show that speaks our language.”