Review: The Orestia Live! at 4th St. Arts

By Hakim Bellamy

If you like Greek Mythology, you LOVE Greek playwriting. If you are still tripping over the “visual spectacle” that was 300, then be more impressed by the live comedy, harmony and over the top absurdity of Aeschylus’s Trojan trilogy for a fraction of 300’s opulent budget. Don’t just support live art, but support art that is “LIVE”! (The ebonetically correct translation of live can be phat, hot, decent, way cool, far out, etc.) The manifestation of this “liveliness” happens at the North 4th Arts Center this Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm (September 28th-30th). It happens when you put two of your favorite historical time periods together, in your favorite town, in one hour’s time. The era of the Trojan War, mixed with the Vaudevillian flair of a 1940’s USO radio show, set in…get this…Albuquerque, for one of the most existential and entertaining hours in your life that you could equate with time traveling.

Now, if you are thinking that you could never follow those daytime soap addled, Greek tragedies in high school, no worries! This play/comedy/musical is as accessible as it is accurate. Trust me, I know, I sat in the audience this past Saturday having known nothing about Aeschylus or his Oresteia. And having not read the program prior because I arrived in my typical moviegoer fashion, early enough to miss all the pre-stuff, but late enough so the lights just went down as I entered the auditorium. I still was able to follow the complex storyline and the laugh lines to boot. Credit that to the amazingly clever renditions of these classic Greek characters by Gary Mahoney (aka Garrick Garcia) and The Kastroupel Sisters (Jessie Barkl, Molly Kohl and Susan Stroupe). Now if you are thinking “How do these four pull off a multiple character cast for over three plays?”, then the answer is “Brilliantly”. In the legacy of Orson Welles complete with reporter types modeled after Carl Phillips, the North 4th Arts production has authentic 40’s looking microphones from the Golden Age of Radio. The talented foursome who make up the cast of this production sing and dance their way into more larger than life characters than Eddie Murphy in the Nutty Professor I & II.

So if you are looking for something to do this weekend, how about a tale of Athenian democracy in a post-war Grecian society? A tale of justice rather than vengeance, a message of hope in these current times of war. Join the Kastroupel Sisters and Gary Mahoney, LIVE, crowd participation is encouraged…and enforced. Brought to you by Lysolia All Purpose Cleaner and Hephaestus Weaponry & Cutlery. Don’t ask? You’ll get it when you see the show. Find out more about prices and show times at www.vsartsnm.org.

Hakim Bellamy is Social and Community Programs Director, NM, State Office of African American Affairs and Albuquerque Slam Poet. reach him at www.myspace.com/hakimbellamyazhizelf or www.digiflowz.net