The Factory Theater’s “Party at the Pantheon,” with Tierra Matthews and Jamaque Newberry/Photo: Candice Lee Conner, Oomphotography
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Chicago has seen multiple works in theater and dance based on ancient Greek mythology in the last year, but none of them have been told featuring weed-smoking, monster-fighting and queer-identifying protagonists… Until now!
“Party at the Pantheon,” running through March 23 at The Factory Theater, bills itself as “a modern Greek stoner comedy” and delivers on that tagline. Written by Michael Jones and directed by Kamille Dawkins, this sequel to the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice follows a trio of mythological Hellenic heavyweights on a quest to throw an epic party.
Orpheus (Jamaque Newberry) became a pop-music sensation alongside his girlfriend and music partner, Eurydice (Tierra Matthews), but thanks to a blunder by Orpheus that left Eurydice trapped in the underworld, his reputation is in tatters, and he lacks the confidence to continue his career.
Enter best bud Dionysus (Malachi Marrero)—looking fabulous in a white-mesh tank top, Mardi Gras beads and thick leather belt at his waist—who plans to repair Orpheus’ status by throwing the mother of all shindigs at the famed Parthenon in Athens. With Orpheus as the brains and Dionysus as the wild card, they complete their trio by recruiting notable boulder-pusher Sisyphus (Donovan Mullings) as the muscle. One need not imagine Sisyphus happy, as an eternity of pushing the same boulder has given him superhuman strength and ego—“For me, every day is leg day!”
Along the way, they encounter a trio of pugilistic cyclopes, a melancholy Minotaur and Greek gods including Zeus (Garrett Wiegel) played like an upper-class WASP, Daedalus (Tateonna Thompson) as a Jay Z-like music producer, and Theseus (Matt Chester) as an arrogant buffoon. The way these gods and their stories are reimagined through a modern comedic take is a delight—the “Sweater of Theseus” and the Oracle as a trash-talking podcaster take the cake.
Other moments come off as lazy writing: references to celebrities and aristocrats will be irrelevant in a matter of months, a script laden with eye-rolling, well-known catchphrases and a running gag that rips off the already tired “Who’s on first?” bit by Abbott and Costello. You would have to be stoned for these jokes to elicit a giggle.
But it is a stoner comedy, after all. The aesthetic of the show would fit right in as a program on Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” platform, beloved by millennials for its surreal brand of stoner-friendly programming, an aesthetic that the show goes for and gets right.
Jones exhibits a gift for interpreting these ancient stories for modern audiences. The gods are portrayed as modernized caricatures, and their tales are told in an easily digestible way. Remove the references to drugs, sex and race (fifty-percent of the show) and this would be a perfect introduction to Greek mythology for all ages.
“Party at the Pantheon” succeeds in marrying the classic with the contemporary through fleshed out and updated renditions of history’s greatest characters and stories. If you’re a fan of irreverent stoner humor, you’ll have a good time.
“Party at the Pantheon” runs through March 23 at The Factory Theater, 1623 West Howard. Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm. Tickets are $25 at thefactorytheater.com.
