The story of Persephone, ab ducted queen of the under world, is one of the most potent in Greek mythology — so much so that it’s inspired a steady stream of writers and artists over the centuries.
Now, Julia Stiles, the appealingly austere actress last seen on Broadway in “Oleanna” (and now filming TV’s “Dexter”) has the title role of the Ridge Theater’s “Persephone” — whose book is by Tony winner Warren Leight (“Side Man”). Other contributors include Bill Morrison, who makes haunting movies with decaying nitrate footage, and musician Mimi Goese, formerly of the bewitching band Hugo Largo.
While the visuals are often stunning, the show amounts to less than the sum of its parts.
In this rambling hodgepodge, a late-19th-century troupe is putting on a musical pageant about the kidnapped goddess, illustrated with magic-lantern projections. In quick order, an actress named Clara (Stiles, who should have more to do) rebels against authoritarian director Jules (Sean Haberle), and tries to win co-star Grace (Goese) over to her cause. They are stuck in a nonsensical fiasco, Clara complains — and I found myself nodding in agreement.
Many of the pageant’s anachronistic, electronica-flavored songs — written by Ben Neill and Goese (who sings them all) — are pleasant, but they also wash away quickly. And the script, incorporating poems by the Shelleys and Algernon Charles Swinburne, among others, is a bloated, purple bore.
And yet we see a lot of that supposed disaster, as Leight and director Bob McGrath keep interrupting the mildly entertaining backstage shenanigans to present large swaths of the inferior show within a show.
In other words, the imaginary actors criticize what they’re meant to perform, but the real audience must endure it anyway. This is an extra layer of irony we could have done without.