Art

A Review of Chicago Opera Vanguard's GREEK

"Fate Makes Us Play the Roles We're Cast": A Review of Chicago Opera Vanguard's GREEK

Today's media work hard to inundate contemporary society with the perverse and repulsive, a symptom of our culture one might wrongly assume as unique. Our desire to be disgusted, however, can be viewed as a more than two-thousand year itch, stemming from the still gut-wrenchingly revolting tale of Oedipus. The Chicago Opera Vanguard is stepping in to help scratch that itch with a production of Mark-Anthony Turnage's GREEK, at St. Paul's Art Center in Wicker Park.

For anybody unawares, the Oedipus myth boils down to a young man who unwittingly fulfills a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. It's gross. And Turnage's take on it adds even another turn of the screw.

GREEK first premiered in 1988 and joins some 15 other operatic interpretations of the myth. Turnage transplants the story in "contemporary" East End London and infuses it with a punk slant.

The score is both inventive and enthralling. The production does more than provide a modern context for an ancient story; it plays with the concept of performance, the set and costume changes all in complete view of the audience.

Still, the opera maintains an awareness of its Greek theater roots. The chorus as stagehands, for example, helps move the play along as it would have in fifth-century Greece. The contemporary urban setting sidesteps a little to make room for the sphinx present in the original myth. And much like the Greek plays of old, GREEK embeds contemporary cultural criticism inside an ancient, familiar tale.

GREEK's short run-only 5 performances through June 13-is housed at St. Paul's Art Center at 2215 W North Avenue. You can buy tickets at the Chicago Opera Vanguard website: http://www.chicagovanguard.org/www/season/greek.htm