This production was scheduled July 26-28, 2024.
A play called Escaping the Labyrinth—especially one written as recently as 2021—might have you imagining car chases and harrowing getaways à la Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne.
This neat little escape, however, turns out to be one of the romantic kind, a fantasy for the modern age in which our hero’s name isn’t James Bond but Bud Schliemann, and the most precarious predicament he encounters is falling in love—with a goddess, no less.
Yes, the “real” Greek goddess Artemis (aka Diana in the ancient Roman world, aka Dee in her incarnation here as a Dayton, Ohio waitress in, you guessed it, a Greek restaurant).
By the Sea Productions is presenting this small gem of a play, written by the prolific Thomas Hischak, as a staged reading for three performances only July 26-28. It features a sparkling cast, led by Gregory DeMartini as Bud (a classics scholar, academic, and romantic at heart) and MJ Johnson as Dee, who both put so much into their characters and their line readings that you often forget you aren’t watching a full-blown production.
Equally excellent in what director Janice Peters calls her “dream cast” are Ed Cardoza and Ali Abdul Rahim, both cast as the only other mortals in the show.
Tim Linzey, Diana Linzey, Redzuan Abdul Rahim, and John Geever are other “real” Greek gods disguised as mortals, and the pleasure they find in exploring their roles is contagious (you will particularly enjoy watching Tim Linzey playing Sarge—actually Ares, the God of War—as he clearly enjoys playing Bud’s soused drinking buddy in one bittersweet scene).
It’s difficult to stop smiling as the two-hour play progresses through Bud’s often funny, often illuminating interactions with these immortals, through eight scenes set in different parts of the world, and through its almost-60-year timespan.
Thanks to appropriate costumes and props, efficient stage managing by Rhonda Crowfoot, and quite effective lighting and sound designed by Samvel Gottlieb, the show tells a winning (if fanciful) tale.
Well, perhaps not so fanciful. As Bud points out several times, the Greek gods still live on in art, in architecture, and in stories—such as this one. It’s fun to be reminded that their activities on Mt. Olympus (and their passions) are simple reflections of our own human desires and foibles.
You’ll leave the last act of Escaping the Labyrinth with the same soft spot in your heart for the ancient Greeks that Bud expresses so eloquently in the first act of this sweet and whimsical production.