In Sophocles' infrequently produced tragedy Women of Trachis, Deianira accidentally fatally poisons her half-god husband, Herakles, after learning of his adulterous obsession, then commits suicide, fulfilling a prophecy. The dying Herakles commands their grief-stricken son, Hyllus, to marry the girl with whom the father has been obsessed. In Kate E. Ryan's tongue-in-cheek one-act adaptation, Sophocles' plot and structure are enlivened by contemporary cultural references and a wry, modern sensibility.
Deianira, played with frantic intensity by the excellent Heidi Schreck, is the original desperate housewife in a designer dress. We first see her writhing in a tortured Martha Graham-like solo dance (choreographed by Beth Kurkjian). Hyllus (Debargo Sanyal) is a smug, know-it-all teen; the herald Lichas (also Sanyal) is a worldly gay fashionista; and the chorus (Birgit Huppuch, Jodi Lin, Rebecca Lingafelter) -- three vapid, pretty-in-pink 20-somethings -- shares folk songs and summer-camp reminiscences amidst growing chaos. Under Alice Reagan's energetic, often witty direction, the talented cast (which also includes Sara Buffamanti, Todd d'Amour, and Indika Senanayake) gamely updates Sophocles' parade of relentless suffering.
According to program notes, watching tragedy unified Hellenic communities, so Target Margin wanted to try staging one in an era of TV-news-tragedy overkill, when "our ability to empathize" has been exhausted. Admittedly, I am among those cranky purists whose still, small voices cry, in a wilderness of Bloomingdale's, Xanax, and arthroscopic-knee-surgery references, that Sophocles' tragedies have endured for nearly 2,500 years precisely because their ageless, universal themes need no updating. Indeed, Women of Trachis is perhaps the most accessible. Not many of us have killed the kids or Dad and slept with Mom, but almost everyone has experienced some level of jealousy or roving-eye syndrome or been that third person in a triangle. True, we are desensitized by the blood-and-gore TV-news glut, but that only makes the function of tragedy more important: We need an arena in which we can sit quietly, side by side in dark anonymity, and experience recognition, empathy, catharsis, and renewal. Minus the contemporary references, humor, and irony, I just might have been able to do so.
Presented by Target Margin Theater at the Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster St., NYC. Jan. 20-Feb. 3. Fri., 9:30 p.m.; Sat., 5 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (Additional performance, Mon., Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m.) (212) 352-3101 or www.theatermania.com.