Anyone who has ever read Joseph Campbell knows that even ancient myths were meant to resonate in the modern world: Quests are quests whether you’re talking about Argonauts, Hobbits, Jedi or Avengers … it’s just that many myths are so couched in the iconography of the past, audiences don’t realize it.
So when a trio of masked actors step onstage at Theatre 3, incanting the legends of ancient Crete at the outset of The Minotaur, it feels familiar, but old-fashioned: the Greek chorus. But then the masks come off as we meet a black female rabbi (Renee Jones), a priest (Randy Pearlman) and a lawyer (David Lugo), and these stories take on the aura of a coffee klatch. They dish about the cursed Minotaur (Darren McElroy), a half-breed man-bull doomed to wander the unsolvable maze known as the Labyrinth, craving only human flesh. He’s a monster whose fate is sealed … or is he a tragic hero given free will and the gift of human choice? Even he doesn’t know.
And so goes Anna Ziegler’s modern retelling of the dark fable of the warrior demigod Theseus (Kyle Igneczi) who at the behest of Ariadne (Cora Grace Winstead) delved into the Labyrinth to meet — or overcome? — his destiny. The play toggles back and forth between the classic texts and the contemporary idiom, sorting out the nature of mankind and how our passions can control us, whether by a face that launched a thousand ships or a selfie in an online chatroom for royals. Destiny and desire, demons and dreams, guilt and appetite have been around forever. It’s how we deal with them that defines us. “We cannot be monsters — we are heroes,” Theseus assures Ariadne… until he’s not sure he believes it himself.
Jeffrey Schmidt launches his first full season as the new head of Theatre 3 with this sure-footed directorial effort (he also designed the sparse but evocative set). Schmidt has always been a resourceful director — a problem-solver — and he blends the competing styles superbly. A strong suit is the casting: Igneczi cuts a swashbuckling mien with the boyish charm of Leonardo DiCaprio; McElroy is a brooding, sexy beast; Pearlman kvetches and Lugo mansplains like nobody’s business.
The play has its weaknesses. Sometimes the plot can get twisted or drift its focus, but the humanity and thoughtfulness shine through the darkness. The Minotaur hooks you.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
Theatre 3,
2800 Routh St. Through Aug. 27.
Theatre3Dallas.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 18, 2017.