Metamorphoses (play) - Genre

Genre

Since the Metamorphoses is derived from literary texts, productions of Zimmerman's may be classified in the genre of Readers Theater. Readers Theater is meant to present a narrative text, like a poem, to an audience rather than a typical play script. Readers Theater generally follows the presentational form of theater, rather than representational, often relying on narrators to bring insight from an outside perspective to a character. The presentational aspect is thought to universalize the performance by creating a direct and intimate link between the audience and the narrator. Readers Theater also calls for less theatrical devices, such as costumes, sets, and props in order to better focus on the story and the language. Metamorphoses generally follows these methods by using multiple narrators, who both tell and comment on the story, and uses language that is strongly rooted in the David R. Slavitt translation of Ovid's mythology.

In terms of more classic genres, Metamorphoses acts as a hybrid by containing elements of various genres including comedy, classic tragedy, and drama, but not necessarily limited to any of them. Metamorphoses borrows many aspects from the theater genre of opera in the sense that it uses visual and aural illusions and achieving them in fairly simplistic ways. It has been said that Zimmerman was better able to capture the seriocomic elements of Ovid's tales than most adaptations.