FROM THE AISLE: PROMETHEUS BOUND

When I first read about A.R.T.’s newest show Prometheus Bound, playing now through April 2nd at Oberon in Harvard Square, in this very magazine, I was dubious about the combination of Greek tragedy (by Aeschylus) and rock music (by Serj Tankian of System of a Down). Couple my skepticism with a playwright like Steven Sater (author of the hugely successful Spring Awakening) and you’d understand why I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

But very earlier into the show, I realized something that I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of before: rock music goes fucking perfectly with Greek tragedy.

Think about it: put the hyperbolic language of Greek drama next to the hyperbolic lyricism of rock and you have a simpatico relationship.

The story is simple: Prometheus (Gavin Creel) is put in chains because Zeus is angry with him for giving fire to mankind. Zeus, here, is a tyrant, fixated on keeping humanity ignorant and subservient.

Aeschylus’ original work doesn’t have too much action – most of it is described through Prometheus’s monologues or conversations he has with the Daughters of the Aether. Sater’s version keeps the same structure and uses the songs to replace some of the speeches or to investigate the themes of tyranny and oppression.

So, how is the music? It’s fucking good.

Bigger and heavier than your average rock musical, and sometimes with the unmistakable fingerprint of Serj Tankian, the music is more contemplative than plot driven.

Before the show actually begun, “Holiday in Cambodia” by the Dead Kennedys played over the house speakers, and the band, who had just walked on stage, sort of joined in. This, I think, accurately captures the political aesthetic of the music. Now, the songs don’t sound as if they were written by the Dead Kennedys (as I said, they sound like they were written by Tankian), but it is the same vein.

Director Diana Paulus (A.R.T.’s Artistic Director) knows how to use the space at Oberon. Using very little, she creates an immersive experience (the music helps this, too) that’s both suggestively fanciful and starkly simplified. You feel like you’re in some other world of gods and titans, but you can also just listen to a man on the stage defiantly condemning a despot.

Paulus’s use of the Daughters of the Aether (performed in wonderful harmony by Jo Lampert, Celina Carvajal and Ashley Flanagan), for example, walks the balance between the supernatural nature of the story and the real-world applications of its themes. The Daughters speak in a kind of echoing oneness, dreamy and rhythmic and beautiful. But their sympathy for Prometheus and their eventual transformation speak directly to the harrowing struggle of political oppression.

Sometimes the nuances of the theme (clearly the point of inspiration for Sater, Tankian and Paulus) are lost in the bombast of the music. I do not mean the music distracted, but merely that there were moments I wished I could catch all of the lyrics, so that I could better follow the deepening scrutiny of its always-timely message.

[Prometheus Bound. Playing now through 4.2.11. Club Oberon. 2 Arrow Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge. 617.496.8004. Begins at $25. americanrepertorytheater.org]