Mary Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning Metamorphoses is a beautifully-wrought play, sometimes delicate and sometimes epic, and Guilford’s production does it justice. The play interprets and retells eight Greek and Roman myths originally recorded in Ovid’s classic poetry. Loosely framed as stories told by washerwomen as they work, the stories depict love in its many forms: love for a person, for things, for power; love as desire, greed, hunger, lust; even love at its purest and most beautiful.

Guilford’s production, directed by Jack Zerbe, breathes life into these stories, and my lasting impression of the play is of its sheer, moving beauty.

Though much about the production was impressive, the thing that struck me immediately was its set. Designed by April Soroko, the stately, symmetrical set featured one decidedly unique aspect: a pool of water.

Not only did the pool provide shocks and laughs for the audience, who were splashed often during the play, it was the central area of action, a fact that somehow enhanced the play’s timeless quality. This tone was solidified by the echoing, Mediterranean-sounding music, as well as the constumes, which included delicate white garments, flowing dresses, and much exposed skin.

Then, of course, there were the stories themselves. The classic myths, recalling fairy tales with their sensuous and eternal mood, ran to extremes. Some were modernized, some left in their original form; some funny, others movingly sad.

This range of emotions was particularly impressive considering each story took less than fifteen minutes. The cast of ten actors played over fifty roles in the play, and, while I sometimes wanted more time with the individual characters and tales, their multiple appearances echoed earlier characters and helped create the play’s continuity.

The small cast-to-character ratio also showcased the actors’ ability. Each played at least five roles – succeeding, for the most part, in bringing them all to life.

It’s not easy to swing an audience back and forth between tears and laughter, but this play did it.

It opened with humor, as Zeus (played by Brandon Sasnett) lit a cigarette off the spark he used to create life. The humor continued in a scene between the angsty Phaeton (Noah Foreman) and his therapist (Susan Rahmsdorff), which dryly referenced The Graduate. Other stories, like that of Orpheus (Eduard Ferrer) and Eurydice (Samantha Kittle), were movingly tragic.

Still others resonated with beauty – most notably, the last myth of the play. It was the story of a poor and elderly couple, Baucis (Trina Farmer) and Philemon (Ferrar), who are given one wish as a reward for their generosity. Their wish: to remain together until the end, to die at the same moment.

This scene is only one of many exquisite moments, though the play certainly had its flaws, as all plays do. Some acting was better than others, and some stories less believable or less affecting.

But none of the faults were serious, and none hindered Metamorphoses from achieving a somehow-transcendent beauty and a quality Guilford hasn’t seen since the 2000 production of Angels in America.

In addition to the impressive physical appeal of the production’s technical aspects, the strength of its acting, and the more subtle draw its mood creates, the play has one additional quality: a basic appeal to human optimism and hope.

Metamorphoses’ primary theme is the endurance of love, and I bought it entirely.