Batavia High School presents The Greek Mythology Olympiaganza, a side-splitting spoof of the Greek Myths, written by Don Zolidis and directed by Joshua Casburn. The performances will be on January 23-25 at 7:30 pm. This hilarious play will be performed in the Black Box Theatre at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre. Tickets are available January 8 online at www.BataviaFineArtsCentre.org and at the box office. Tickets prices are for general admission and are $12 online and $14 by phone and at the box office.
This goofy comedy, reminiscent of the comedy of Monty Python or the Reduced Shakespeare Company, contains two battling narrators who intend to give a school presentation on the entirety of Greek mythology. Needless to say, the presentation spins out of control!
One of the narrators, played by senior Jordan Morgan, is a bookish feminist intent on exposing the hypocrisies of the ancient Greeks. The other, played by senior Andrew Tucker, is an overly-energetic chauvinist who was lucky he remembered that there was a presentation in the first place. Constantly trying to one-up each other, the narrators attempt to “cover” all of the myths, usually giving most of them a hilarious modern spin.
Find out what's happening in Bataviafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
One of the myths spoofed is the myth of Cronos, played by junior Michael Gustin, who “wisely” decides to eat his own babies—which naturally results in marriage counseling with his wife, Rhea, played by junior Jenna Noble. The narrators give differing accounts of the famous myth of Pandora, played by junior Ally O’Donnell, including a feminist version presented as an Oxygen network movie-of-the-week. Hercules, sophomore John Hohman, becomes an intern-god who struggles to find a career as a masseuse or a dance choreographer; Jason and the Argonauts are a Super Friends parody, complete with the junior Audrey Karpf and sophomore Joe Guritz as the Wonder Twins (“powers activate!”), who defeat a lackadaisical and idiotic zombie army; Icarus, sophomore Drake Swift, chooses wings over duck flippers sewn on him by his crazy, inventor father Daedalus, senior Roshan Sen; and the Orpheus and Eurydice myth is almost told a bit like a Twilight parody!
To cap it all off, the narrators tell the story of the Iliad, the beginning of which using only “eight-year old” boys and the end of which using only action figures! Overall, twenty-eight actors present over 90 characters in this insane comedy full of sword fights, monsters, and cross-dressing.
