Jason’s mythical quest for the Golden Fleece becomes the most thrillingly imaginative action-adventure swashbuckler of this or any L.A. theater year as A Noise Within treats audiences of all ages to Mary Zimmerman’s Argonautika: The Voyage Of Jason And The Argonauts.

The tale being told may be thousands of years old but Zimmerman’s stage adaptation debuted just a dozen or so years ago, making it the ideal weekend pick for theatergoers who like their classics told with modern, occasionally self-referential, tongue-in-cheek flair.

Not only does Julia Rodriguez-Elliott direct with as much theatrical ingenuity as you’d normally see in an entire season at A Noise Within, Argonautika is also a whole lot easier to follow than Shakespeare and a whole lot more fun than Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides.

You’ve got Jason (Ty Mayberry), whose arrival in Iolcos so threatens his uncle King Pelias (Alan Blumenfeld) that His Majesty sends his bare-chested nephew off on a quest he knows will be considerably easier assigned than done.

Along the way, Jason and his fellow Argonauts (the name comes from Argo, the ship on which they set sail) encounter rocky waters, assorted sea monsters including a fire-breathing dragon and some people-eating Harpies, and a quartet of man-eating virgins (the verb “eat” being used in a euphemistically here), brought to life on the A Noise Within stage by a combination of puppetry and theatrical special effects that must be seen to be believed.

Zimmerman’s script is as philosophical and deep as it is funny (King Pelias complains of a sore back, itchy eyes, weak limbs, moldy skin, and a constant need to vomit before revealing what really gets his goat: “I might die.”), and outrageously, anachronistically rule-breaking to boot, as when Jason’s Argonauts introduce themselves in a series of drum-punctuated raps interspersed with unison cries of “Sha-boo-ya! Ya! Ya! Sha-boo-ya, roll call!”

Rhyming Argonauts include Evan Lewis Smith’s Idmon (“I see the future, but I could also hurt you.”) and Michael Uribes’s Meleager (“My name’s Meleager. When I see that Fleece, I’ll go and seize her.).

 There’s also Frederick Stuart’s Hercules, Richy Storrs’s Hylas, Justin Lawrence Barnes’s Phineus, Collin Bressie’s Apsyrtos, Sam Christian’s Pelias’s Son, and Marc Leclerc’s Eros.

On the distaff side, you’ve got Veralyn Jones’s Hera and Trisha Miller’s Athena, who serve as Jason’s guides every step of the way, and Cassandra Marie Murphy’s Atalanta and Aphrodite, Angela Gulner’s Medea, Helen Jane Planchet’s Andromeda.

Add to this a stageful of male musculature and female curves, an absolutely hilarious David-vs.-Goliath-style boxing match (choreographed by Kenneth R. Merckx, Jr.),

a pair of love stories (one between male Argonauts and another that shows off the much-defiled Medea in a far more sympathetic light), and an epilogue that will have you looking at the night skies with brand new eyes, and you’ve got a play and production that will be remembered as one of the year’s finest and most one-of-a-kind.

There’s not a weak link in Argonautika’s dramatically, comedically, athletically fit cast of multi-taskers (completed by Argonauts Lorena Ruiz and Bradley Alan Turner), from Mayberry’s stalwart Jason to Miller’s and Jones’s doubly fierce Hera and Athena to Blumenfeld’s deliciously diabolical King Pelias to the terrifically talented Barnes, Bressie, Christian, Leclerc Planchett, Smith, Storrs, and Uribes, with special snaps to a revelatory Stuart’s dim himbo of a Hercules and Murphy’s bevy of characters (including a delightfully ditzy Aphrodite) who manage to sing with Broadway-caliber pipes even when suspended in aerial midair.

Frederica Nascimento’s deceptively simple set (a bridge and three ladders) works wonders when complemented by Erin Walley’s clever props, Dillon fanciful Nelson’s puppets, and above all Jenny Foldenauer’s supremely imaginative costumes and Shannon Hutchins’s wigs and makeup, all of the above spectacularly lit by Ken Booth, and sound designer Robert Oriol’s original music adds to the adventure every step of the way.

Melissa Sky-Eagle’s music direction ensures topnotch vocalizing, Stephanie Shroyer merits choreographic high marks for her movement direction, and Merckx’s fight choreography includes some man-vs.-skeleton combat to do stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen proud.

Miranda Johnson-Haddad is dramaturg. Samantha Sintef is stage manager and Jacob Houser is assistant stage manager. Dayna L. Lucas is associate costume designer.

Nic Arnzen, Wayne T. Carr, Adrian Gonzalez, Sally Hughes, Merckx, Drew Parker, Katie Rodriguez, and Tania Verafield are understudies,

Centuries-old plays by Shakespeare, Moliere, and Racine and comparatively recent classics by Miller, Williams, and Inge may be A Noise Within’s bread and butter, but when L.A.’s premier classical regional theater goes modern (as they did earlier this season with Michael Michetti’s new adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Picture Of Dorian Gray), they create theatrical magic to please classicists and modernists alike.

One thing is certain. No matter how many productions you see this year, you won’t see anything to match Argonautika’s feats of theatrical magic and wonder.

A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena.
www.ANoiseWithin.org

–Steven Stanley
March 24, 2019
Photos: Craig Schwartz

Tags: A Noise Within, Los Angeles Theater Review, Mary Zimmerman