On a nippy Sunday afternoon we took the 428 Bus to the Flight Path Theatre (aka the Sidetrack Theatre) to see ‘Death in the Pantheon’ by James Hartley. Someone had spiked the ambrosia that makes the gods of the Pantheon immortal and one of them has…died. Well, it was Hephaetius and that lightning bolt sticking out of his back suggests he was MURDERED!
The surviving gods don’t know which is worse, mortally or murder, but they do know they need help.
Who ya gonna call? The Owl symbol is sent forth and Athena, god of wisdom, is on the case. She looks. She thinks. She looks some more. She questions. She questions again. She does move fast this god.
While she is investigating another god dies and it looks like poison.
Never one of say ‘No’ the grieving widow Aphrodite remarries, briefly.
These are the Greek gods of Homer: bickering, bored, squabbling, boring, spoiled, none too bright — Except Athena! Who sets a traps for the murderer, leaves her own false trails…and…!
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It is fun, and the governing theme that the gods need worshipers more than worshippers need gods emerges. See Neil Gaiman, American Gods (2001) for the another treatment of that theme, if you like dense and self-indulgent prose. I commented on this novel on the blog in 2016. Click on for the enlightenment needed.
The performers are each committed to their roles. We enjoyed the energy of the petulant Ares, the Tennessee Williams glamour of Aphrodite, the solemnity of Athena, the insouciance of Zeus, the practicality of Hera, the persnickety Hades, the preening Poseideon, and reeling Dionysius, the sarcastic Hermes whose reading of the wedding apologies was a notable.
The theatre was chilly but I suppose there is nothing to be done about that. It is after all a tin shed (which was once an Army tin shed). The program notes said 75 minutes on one web page and 80 minutes on another without an interval. OK. The reality was 120 minutes without an interval. Too long. That is the more annoying when I realise this play has been staged several times so that the timing should have been fixed. Grrr.