Metamorphoses (play) - Style

Style

Being based on myths thousands of years old, Zimmerman and Metamophoses proves that these stories are still have relevance and can be effectively experienced in modern times. The play advocates that perhaps human beings haven't changed to the point of being unrecognizable nearly two thousand years later, and Zimmerman has stated, "These myths have a redemptive power in that they are so ancient. There's a comfort in the familiarity of the human condition." Zimmerman also generally gives the audience an objective point of view, perhaps to get a better scope of the variety of stories and themes being told. An example of the objectivity of Metamorphoses, in terms of plot, is during the Alcyone and Ceyx scene when the audience is aware of Ceyx's death long before Alcyone learns of it. In terms of motifs, Metamorphoses can become a little more subjective, especially in the themes of death and love. The play advocates in favor of the concepts concerning death as a transformation of form rather than death as an absence, which is typical in popular Western culture.

Metamorphoses is a non-naturalistic play, and is presented as mythic rather than realistic. The use of myths essentially "lifts the individuals out of ordinary time and the present moment, and places him in "mythic time"—an ambiguous term for the timeless quality myths manifest." The setting of the play isn't limited to just one specific location. For example, the pool on stage transforms from "the luxurious swimming pool of nouveau riche Midas, the ocean in which Ceyx drowns, the food devoured by Erysichthon, Narcissus' mirror, a basin to hold Myrrha's tears, the river Styx" and that the pool, like the stories transcend realistic thinking and are "suspended in space and time."

The plot is constructed mostly by a series of vignettes, but is framed overall by a few narrative devices. The opening scene essentially shows the creation of the world, or Cosmogony, not only sets up the world that the following characters will live in, but the world itself. In terms of a beginning and end within the stories themselves, King Midas frames them with his story of greed at the beginning and his redemption at the last moments of the play. After being introduced as a horribly selfish man, the other stories of the play get told and mask the lack of resolution within the Midas story. Finally at the end, Midas who is "by this time long forgotten and in any case unexpected--reappears, newly from his quest" with his restored daughter, and "on this note of love rewarded and love redeemed, the play comes to an end.". Through all the vignettes that are portrayed, the audience is meant to leave not with the story of a few individuals, but rather to know the power of human transformation in all forms.

Metamorphoses uses a combination of presentational and representational forms, including the Vertumnus and Pomona scene, which is both acted out and tells the story of Myrrha. However, when representation is used, it isn't meant to be a representation of real life, but simply a rendition of a story. For the most part, the play follows a linear technique by having the sequence of events in each individual story follow a rational chronological timeline. The Orpheus scene strays from this, by repeating a portion of the same scene numerous times for the thematic purpose to emphasize Orpheus' tormenting loss.

Zimmerman intended the play to build on a foundation of images. In a New York Times interview, Zimmerman said, "You're building an image, and the image starts to feed you" as well as, "When I approach a text, I don't do a lot of historical reading. It's an artificial world and I treat it as an artificial world." Zimmerman's plays have been described as "theater of images" and compared to the style of the director Robert Wilson, Pina Bausch, and Julie Taymor. Zimmerman also uses the play as a "poetic bridge between myth and modernism" by creating a hyrid of ancient Greek antiquities and modern American culture.

Metamorphoses also focuses general concepts and emotions rather than on the individual characters themselves.