Metamorphoses (play) - Plot Synopsis

Plot Synopsis

The play is staged as a series of vignettes. The order is as follows:

• Cosmogony- Used to explain the creation of the world, as well as give the audience a sense of the style and setting of the play. Woman by the Water, Scientist, and Zeus help narrate how our world of order came from chaos, either by the hand of a creator or by a "natural order of things."

• Midas- The story is framed by the narration of three laundresses who tell the story of King Midas, a very rich man. After shunning his daughter for being too disruptive during his speech about caring for his family, a drunken Silenus enters and speaks of a far away land capable of granting eternal life. Silenus later falls asleep, and Midas shelters him in the cabana. Bacchus later comes to retrieve Silenus, and grants Midas a wish for his graciousness towards Silenus. Midas asks for the ability to have whatever he touches turn to gold. Midas accidentally turns his daughter into gold and is prompted by Bacchus to seek a mystic pool that will restore him to normal. Midas leaves for his quest.

• Alcyone and Ceyx- Also narrated by the three laundresses, this story depicts King Ceyx and his wife Alcyone. Despite his wife's warnings and disapproval, Ceyx voyages into the ocean to visit a far off oracle. Poseidon destroys Ceyx's ship. Ceyx is killed in the process, unbeknownst to Alcyone who awaits on the shore. Prompted by Aphrodite, Alcyone has a dream of Ceyx, who tells her to go the shore. With mercy from the gods, the two are reunited. Transformed as seabirds, they fly together toward the horizon.

• Erysichthon and Ceres- This story tells of a godless and sacrilegious man named Erysichthon, who cuts down a tree sacred to the goddess Ceres. In an act of vengeance, Ceres commands the spirit Hunger to make him captive to an insatiable appetite. After eating endlessly and spending all his fortune on food, Erysichthon tries to sell his mother to a merchant. His mother gets transformed into a little girl after praying to the god Poseidon and escapes from the merchant. Erysichthon eventually succumbs to his endless hunger and devours himself.

• Orpheus and Eurydice- The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is told twice. The first from the point of view of Orpheus in 8 AD, who has just married his bride Eurydice. Eurydice is bitten by a snake on their wedding day and dies. Orpheus, so distraught, travels to the Underworld so that he might work out a deal to retrieve Eurydice. After singing a mournful song, Hades is convinced to let Eurydice return with Orpheus on one condition: Eurydice must follow Orpheus from behind and he cannot look back at her, and if he should, she must stay in the Underworld forever. Orpheus agrees to the terms, and when almost back to the living world, he doubtfully looks back, causing Hermes to pluck her away. The action is repeated several times, resembling the memory that Orpheus will have forever of losing his bride. The second time is told from the point of view of Eurydice in the likeness of the Rainer Maria Rilke's style in 1908. After an eternity of this repeated action, Eurydice becomes forgetful and fragile, tragically no longer remembering Orpheus. She returns to the Underworld unknowing to Orpheus, the man she loved so long ago.

• Narcissus Interlude- A brief scene showing the character Narcissus catching a glimpse of his own reflection in a pool. He becomes transfixed and becomes paralyzed. He is replaced by a narcissus plant by his fellow castmates.

• Pomona and Vertumnus- This story depicts a female wood nymph named Pomona and a romantically shy Vertumnus. Pomona has refused the hands of many suitors and remains alone. Vertumnus, in order to see her, disguises himself in a variety of costumes and tries to convince Pomona to fall in love with him, although he doesn't reveal his true identity. After telling the story of Myrrha, Pomona tells Vertumnus to take off his ridiculous disguise, and the two become smitten in love.

• Myrrha- A story within the Pomona and Vertumnus story, Vertumnus tells the story of a King Cinyras and his daughter Myrrha. After denying Aphrodite's love attempts many times, Myrrha is cursed by Aphrodite with a lust for her father. Myrrha tries to control her urges, but eventually falls to the temptation. With the help of her Nursemaid, Myrrha has three sexual encounters with her father, each time keeping him drunk and blindfolded so he wouldn't suspect her. The third time Cinyras takes off his blindfold and tries to strangle Myrrha, who escapes and is never seen again. Rumors are mentioned of what happened to her, but she is depicted as melting into the pool.

• Phaeton- This story is told about Phaeton in the form of Phaeton narrating his relationship with his Father, Apollo, to the Therapist. With the Therapist adding her psychoanalytical points, Phaeton tells the audience of a distanced relationship with his father. After bullying from school, Phaeton goes on a journey to meet his father, who drives the sun across the sky every day. Racked with guilt from fatherly neglect, Apollo allows Phaeton to "drive" the sun across the sky as compensation for all the years of absence. Phaeton, who constantly whines, drives the sun too close to the earth and scorches it. The Therapist closes the scene in a monologue about the difference between myth and dream.

• Eros and Psyche- "Q" and "A" essentially narrate a scene about Psyche falling in love with Eros. Psyche and Eros remain silent during the whole interlude, but act out what Q and A discuss. Eros and Psyche fall in love, as Q and A tell the audience that they might wander in the darkness of loneliness until they blind themselves to personal romantic desires and give into a deeper love. Psyche becomes a goddess and lives with Eros forever.

• Baucis and Philemon- The final story tells of Zeus and Hermes disguising themselves as beggars on earth in order to know what its like to be human. After being shunned by every house in the city, they are graciously accepted into the house of the poor married couple, Baucis and Philemon. The married couple feeds the gods with a great feast, not knowing the true identity of the strangers except that they are "children of God". After the feast, the gods reveal themselves and grant the two a wish. Baucis and Philemon ask to die at the same time to save each other grief of death, and the gods respond by turning their house into a grand palace and the couple into a pair of trees with branches intertwined. At the end of the scene, Midas returns to the stage, finds the pools, washes, and is restored. His daughter enters, healed, and the play ends with a redeemed Midas embracing his daughter.

The stories as they are told in the classic Ovid tales

Characters

• Creation
• King Midas
• Alcyone and Ceyx
• Erysichthon
• Orpheus and Eurydice
• Pomona and Vertumnus
• Myrrha
• Phaeton
• Apollo
• Eros and Psyche
• Baucis and Philemon