Hadestown

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Hadestown: Teen Edition

Playwright/s/Composer/s – Anaïs Mitchell

Production Company/Theatre space – StoryBook Theatre / The Beddington Arts Centre

Length – 2 Acts, 2 hours, 20 minutes (one 15-minute intermission)

Genre/s – Fantasy Tragedy Opera

Premise – In a world where gods and mortals co-exist above and below ground,  an artist succeeds in rescuing his beloved from the underworld only to lose her in the end.

Why this play? Why now? – Full of topical and political references and a known name.

Curiosities – Do these young actors know how lucky they are to have this program in Calgary?

Notable Moment – The visual of the wall building.

Notable writing – This Tony award winning script and score was inspired by Greek mythology. The opera (marketed as a musical) is laden with metaphors on the folly of mankind, industrialization, socialism, poverty, hunger, climate change, and politics especially the necessity of building a wall to “protect freedom” by keeping the poor on the other side. Enter our protagonist who takes forever to compose his siren song and the homeless hungry waif who he marries in the first few minutes of meeting. Meanwhile, the titan of industry is busy exploiting natural resources and an enslaved workforce and neglects his earth goddess wife. The song writer goes to the underworld to rescue his wife and after being beaten up, sings his finished song to the workers who threaten uprising, so the villain lets them go providing he does not look back to see that his wife is following him - which he does. Its dense material resulting in dire consequences. The mythology seems to legitimize the worthiness of this telling. At the centre of this world is an artist who struggles to make his work to inspire and rescue humans is thwarted by doubt. A regular Tuesday for any artist.

Notable performances – The whole cast does a heroic job. Alexa Andrews starts the show with her strong clear voice. Looking like a young Patrick Sayze, Nate Bercsenyi deals with the tricky counter tenor like a pro. His hungry hard done by beloved is played intensely by Jeena Aggarson. Acacia Cecile has a lovely stage presence with her villainous husband played by Rocco LoGullo.

Notable design/Production – All the production values sparkle. Benjamin Childs’ lighting design is spectacular. Set Designer JJ Penaranda creates two worlds, a herculean feat.

Notable direction – The true gods of this production are Director Joel Schaefer, Musical Director Ethan Vasquez Taylor and Choreographer Madison Arnason practicing their divine skills under Zeus JP Thibodeau.

One reason to see this show – Hades is a town worth visiting.