Behind that is a high sheet curtain into which is cut a rough dark brown wood arched door. At the side stand two round rose-lighted panels. He and the cast use slide projections of ancient Greek stone and papyrus that show texts with fragments of musical notations to which the dramas were sung, not spoken. The songs, Staniewski says, are based on exclamation. The first vocal gestures were shouts of pain, of joy, shouts to gods, or self-expression through a dissonance that led to possession.
Psyche is shown as a possessed hysteric.
Mimicking the positions of figures drawn on Greek vases, which you see flashed on the screen, the dancers show the origins of their movements. It's an exhilarating display of history and art. 2001 Mac Wellman's funny, terse play about romanticism and reality, the strong and the weak in love and life and politics, is set as encounters between two sets of mothers and daughters atop landmark buildings that ought to afford clear vision. The dialogue is edgy and witty, the acting is comically perfect, and Daniel Aukin's direction is clean and fast-paced. These women give despair no sympathy.