By Wickham Boyle
Charles Mee is an incredibly intelligent writer, a playwright who makes his audience work, and that is not a bad thing. “Iphigenia 2.0,” now at the Signature Theater until October 7, is the first play in an entire season dedicated to this edgy, iconoclastic American voice.
For those in need of a Greek myth brush-up, you may recall that Iphigenia (who in Mee’s take on the classic Euripedes play is sometimes refered to as “Iffy”) is best known as the daughter of Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces at Troy. En route to war, the goddess Artemis sends an ill wind as payback for some offense, keeping his fleet at a standstill on the Aegean Sea. In order to advance, Artemis demands that Agamemnon sacrifice his only daughter. He summons Iphegenia from home under the ruse that she is to be married to Achilles, but just as he is about to kill her, she is miraculously transported to Taurus, a city on the Black Sea, and an animal is sent in her place. The story provides the gist for a modern, somewhat convoluted discussion of the sacrifices leaders and others are asked to make in the name of war.
Mee’s version opens as Agamemnon, attired in a rumpled black tux, comes downstage to confide in us. “Because we see from the histories of empires, none will last forever and all are brought down finally not by others, but by themselves, from the actions that they take that they believe are right or good or necessary at the time to do. Sometimes they are brought to ruin by no more than the belief that something must be done when in truth doing nothing would have been the better course.” We know his mind, having been lured by our own government into a seemingly endless battle overseas. But what is so poignant and heartbreaking here is that with the backdrop of a play written ages ago we confront the tragic timelessness of war.
Mee’s play and Tina Landeau’s direction provide a springboard for action that literally bounces between time zones and styles. Real experimentation in theater never lets you rest intellectually, and “Iphigenia 2.0” certainly provides no place for treading water. Running 85 minutes long without intermission and featuring high-kicking soldiers in a wigged out chorus line, a fractious wedding, and a seduction scene that may become the anthem of “cougars” everywhere, this play is all sink or swim. The multi-tiered stage is littered with maps, an aging Greek caretaker who dances the Mazurka, tiny airplanes on guide wires, a wedding cake, bridesmaids, shirtless hunks, explosions and bloodbaths. Describing this piece in terms of its props is apropos, because the wealth and breadth of “stuff” in this play may be one of its most foreshadowing elements. “Iphigenia 2.0” may not be to every theatergoer’s liking, but no one can criticize the wit, wisdom and commitment to rattling our cages while we watch.
Visit www.THRIVEnyc.com for a profile of Charles Mee and Ann Bogart and their new work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, “Hotel Cassiopeia.”
