RAVE REVIEWS FOR VANTAGE!

“So Small a Thing”

“ I even learned Greek for you, which was a bitch and a half, by the way” (Medea in the play)

So Small a Thing is a reference to the main bone of contention between former lovers stuck in an elevator, likely on the way down (via the elevator communications system, an unseen guy named Charon, apparently in charge, periodically updates the stranded regarding the progress of repairs).
Medea fails to understand why Jason and everyone else seems so worked up over the fact that she killed the couple’s children, her only recourse when the heroic Jason, long her husband, abandoned her to marry King Creon’s daughter. He protests he did it to protect Medea from the regime. She is skeptical.

To one who knows the ancient myth and has experienced it in one or more iterations (Euripides wrote the Greek play; countless others addressed the tale in drama, opera and literature), Salerno’s is a fast-moving and deliciously funny name-dropping confrontation, with Jason bent on some kind of reconciliation, and Medea determined to convince him of her rationale. And after all these years, he still lusts for her (it was ordained by the gods).

As Medea, Jennie Olson Six displays surprising steel and stature. John Anderson provides an unkempt and impatient Jason, for whom things have not gone well since the annihilation of all he loved. Robert Salerno directs.

For the fact of Ms. Salerno’s talent and accomplishments: A graduate of Princeton University, she holds an MFA from American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) and is currently appearing in Caryl Churchill’s recent play, Love and Information, which inaugurates the new Strand Theatre at ACT.

Vantage Theatre has the most extensive and colorful and complete printed program of any I’ve attended in the San Diego Fringe Festival – you’re lucky if there is a program at all in many cases. Not only that wonderful program, Vantage presented a double bill the night of my attendance (Wednesday) at Swedenborg Hall. I’d already seen Warren David Keith in Lynne Kaufman’s Be Here Now, the Journey of Ram Dass, so I saw only the first play, So Small a Thing by Dominique Salerno. ——http://charleneandbrendaintheblogosphere.blogspot.com/

DURING THE SAN DIEGO INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL

SAN DIEGO PREMIERE

So Small A Thing

by Dominique Salerno

A new, modern take on the ancient story of Jason and Medea. Trapped in a stuck elevator in the afterlife, this mythic couple grapples with issues of love, sex and loyalty, that still resonate in today’s modern world. This brand new play, astonishingly well-written, is full of humor, wit, and passion. This is sure to be an audience favorite.