This adaptation of a late sixteenth-century classic Chinese comic novel, Journey to the West, based on Anthony C. Yu’s translation, takes as its point of departure the true story of a seventh-century monk and his fabled pilgrimage from China to India in search of sacred texts. Mixing whimsy with spiritual weight, Zimmerman’s script combines comedy, adventure, and satire in a moving allegory of human perseverance.
„Die Metamorphosen waren aber auch das romanhaft spannende Repertorium der Mythologie. Wer war Phaeton? Lycaon? Procne? Arachne? Für tausend solche Fragen war Ovid das Who´s Who. Man mußte sich darin auskennen. Sonst verstand man die lateinischen Dichter nicht. Außerdem hatten alle mythologischen Geschichten einen allegorischen Sinn. Ovid war also auch ein Schatzhaus der Moral.“ Besser als Ernst Robert Curtius kann man die Bedeutung von Ovids großem Epos nicht würdigen, das wie kein anderes lateinisches Werk die Literatur, Kunst, ja selbst die Musik der folgenden zwei Jahrtausende befruchtet hat.
A twelve-member cast enacts Scheherazade's tales of love, lust, comedy, and dreams. Scheherazade's cliffhanger stories prevent her husband, the cruel ruler Shahryar, from murdering her, and after 1,001 nights, Shahryar is cured of his madness, and Scheherazade returns to her family. This adaptation offers a wonderful blend of the lesser-known tales from Arabian Nights with the recurring theme of how the magic of storytelling holds the power to change people. The final scene brings the audience back to a modern day Baghdad with the wail of air raid sirens threatening the rich culture and history that are embodied by these tales.
This dramatic adaptation of Homer's myth begins with a modern young woman who is struggling to understand Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey. A classical muse appears, and the young woman becomes the goddess Athena--a tireless advocate for Odysseus in his struggle to get home. With her trademark irreverent and witty twist on classic works, Zimmerman brings to life the story of Odysseus's ten-year journey, depicting his encounters with characters such as Circe, the Cyclops, Poseidon, Calypso, the Sirens, and others.