Rosemary Dunsmore, Andy Massingham, Ryan Allen,
Rachelle Casseus (photo credit: Andrée Lanthier)
Metamorphoses
Ovid's Pool Party
by Jim Murchison
twitter@JimMurchison
I have been going to theatre for many years and this is the first time I have ever seen a play set around and in two large swimming pools. Bretta Gerecke has designed a set with a large wading pool downstage at floor level. A walk up the steeply pitched chrome staircases at either side of the stage takes you upstage to the deep end. The second pool looks to be about seven feet wide and deep and a great deal of the action of the play takes place in and around this level and can be seen murkily through the picture window front of the pool. Counters on each side of the chrome handrails have wine glasses and spritzer nozzles suggesting a country club fit for the gods. Behind a diaphanous curtain of water at least 10 feet high that remarkably does not make enough noise to be distracting are musical instruments largely in shadow called aquarions, along with crystal glass rims and bass drum.
