I Married the King of the Underworld and My Mom Freaked

Acts of Grace—

This is a retelling of the Persephone story from Greek mythology, and is a very impressive show with a couple of technical issues. It is a new musical, with music, lyrics and book by Adi Sara Kreindler, who also serves as producer and music director.

For this production, the music had a live digital piano accompaniment that was well-amplified. Unfortunately, the voices did not appear to be mic’d and I had a hard time making out everything the cast was singing, although I could hear everyone perfectly during the moments of plain dialogue. Still, it was clear that the music had some beautiful melodies and harmonies and was also very pleasantly sung. I wouldn’t mind having a recorded version of this show, as the cast does an excellent job with excellent material. The other, minor, technical issue was that the stage seemed at points to be inadequately lit, especially near the beginning of the show.

The story is clearly told and has several nice moments. Some of these involve the character of Demeter (played by Elizabeth Rotoff), Persephone’s mother, who is portrayed as an expert negotiator, getting what she needs from the powerful gods Zeus and Hades in order to protect her daughter. Also well-written and acted was the main character, Persephone (Erin-Brie Warsick), who seeks to balance her love for Hades with her own personal needs, as she finally poses the question to him, “How can you make me live in a world with no sky?” Watching this version of this story made me realize for the first time that this myth is maybe not so much an explanation of why winter exists, but a model of how to reconcile personal and relationship needs or partner needs with family of origin needs. Powerful stuff.

Konrad Antony