Metamorphoses – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (Globe Theatre), London

A review of Metamorphoses, an adaptation from Ovid on now at the Sam Wanamaker playhouse. A stellar first outing from the Globe‘s first writers in residence in centuries!

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

I enjoy an evening of storytelling. There is something about it that connects us to our humanity. People have gathered together for millennia to be entertained by tales of lust, love, murder, revenge… To laugh at folly and sigh at pain. I find it grounds me – reminds me that all of these evenings at the theatre and days in art galleries are just variations on this older instinct to connect and communicate.

And who better to mine for storytelling material than Ovid? Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was very popular in his own time, and his Metamorphoses are arguably one of the most influential works in Western culture. Like the title suggests, the Metamorphoses are a collection of stories about transformations. Some of them we know, like Midas transforming all he touches into gold. But there are more than 250 myths gathered together here, from creation myths to the relatively recent (for Ovid) death and deification of Julius Caesar. There are gods, and heroes, and ordinary people. Happy transformations and sad transformations. A goldmine for those looking for inspiration.

This is the source material chosen by the Globe’s first writers in residence since Shakespeare himself. The dates have shifted due to Covid (of course), but Sami Ibrahim, Laura Lomas and Sabrina Mahfouz have used this time to their advantage. Their Metamorphoses take several of Ovid’s stories – many well-known, some less so – and transform them in turn into a big-hearted, engaging, 90 minutes of theatre. The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, moreover, is the perfect venue. This small, candle-lit space recalls the countless firelit nights when these stories have been shared over the centuries. It also fosters a real audience participation which is hard to foster in a bigger space. Intimate storytelling at its best.

A Transformative Evening

Ibrahim, Lomas and Mahfouz’s Metamorphoses takes the form (so much scope for transformation puns today!) of a four-hander. The actors take on different roles, and switch between narrating the story to the audience, and acting it out as the characters. The set is simple: a red stage and red curtain in the gallery, with a wall of everyday props. The actors take and use some of them, while others simply evoke the stories (as with the deer antlers and Actaeon’s tale).

The stand-out performer for me was Charlie Josephine. It’s no wonder they are sent out first to get things started, as they are so genuine and engaging that they form an immediate rapport with the audience. They also show a skill for improvisation, turning a ringing phone into an amusing addition to a story rather than an annoying interruption. The other actors are also excellent: Steffan Donnelly, Fiona Hampton and Irfan Shamji give nuanced performances and are able to switch from cold-hearted violence to singalongs without losing the audience along the way. Throughout, directors Sean Holmes and Holly Race Roughan keep it nicely paced.

I’ve decided that this is going to be my gold-standard version of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Titian’s paintings, which I saw last year, have nothing on this. I’m glad that the production went through a few initial plans before settling on a small format in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Watching these tales by candlelight, laughing and gasping with a small audience, was near perfect. One of the best things I’ve seen in a while.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 5/5

Metamorphoses on until 30 October 2021