The Golden Ass

Comments (0) By Brad Richason Wednesday, Apr 25 2012

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The Nimbus Theater

1517 Central Ave. Northeast
Minneapolis, MN 55413

Category: Theaters

Region: Northeast Minneapolis

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Liz Neerland

Though originally given the significantly more respectable sounding title Metamorphoses, it's easy to see why the 2nd-century Latin novel by Apuleius has come to be popularly known as The Golden Ass. Despite the antiquity of the text (which is itself based on an even earlier Greek legend), there's very little scholarly stodginess to be found throughout the unabashedly ribald compilation of mischievously salacious misadventures. The wayward behavior originates with the work's roguish protagonist, Lucius, an impetuous scamp whose ambition to steal magic powers results in his literal transformation into an ass. Looking to do justice to the work's raucously rhapsodic spirit, Nimbus Theater's artistic director Liz Neerland has crafted a staged adaption that invites viewers to follow along on a series of encounters drawn from the novel's picaresque narrative. With a seven-actor ensemble, Neerland (also serving as the production's director) will attempt a rollicking recreation of bad behavior which, though set in the ancient world, remains wittily aligned to the modern age. Free to conceptualize the prose in cleverly unexpected ways, Nimbus Theater aims at that rarest of adaptations: one that honors a work by reviving its idiosyncratic energy, rather than simply following a rote narrative. Better still, by breathing vitality into the text, these vignettes of rascally debauchery are certain to strike a universal chord, even for those who spend more time in bars than in libraries. (Image by Shea Brennan)
Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m.; Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Starts: April 28. Continues through May 20, 2012