Three Graces: A "Modern Illiad" Not Destined To Be a Classic

These are had times for Greece—budgetary crises, austerity measures, riots. It’s enough to put you off your spanakopita. But at least most of the nation’s beleaguered citizens aren’t at 3LD to see the well-meaning musical mess that the Immigrants’ Theatre Project make of a portion of their history. Three Graces is likely set on Crete in the late 19^th century. Greater precision eludes me, as the script is so elliptical and the acoustics so terrible that few lines come through intelligibly. By the end of the piece, several bodies litter the stage. I couldn’t mourn them since couldn’t say with any confidence who they were.

Alexander Karasev

3LD = maybe Crete.

Details

Three Graces
By Immigrants’ Theatre Project and Café Antarsia Ensemble
3LD
80 Greenwich Street
212-352-3101, sohothinktank.org

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• Ruth Margraff

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Announced as a “Modern Iliad,” this Ice Factory show bears lyrics by Ruth Margraff and music by Café Antarsia Ensemble, but little content attributable to Homer, save echoes of Hector and mention of a corpse-choked river. Margraff serves as the band’s singer, a role in which she seems distinctly uncomfortable, and her tunes don’t illuminate the action as much as reiterate key terms: lemon tree, battle dress, blood, death, dogs, and thighs. Fine images all, but the whole they form is distinctly muddled and uninspiring. Where’s a muse when you need one?