By comparison to their 2014 All Our Tragic, the Hypocrites’ Aristophanesathon is a wee little thing: running just over four hours where its predecessor lasted 12, featuring six performers as opposed to 14, and, most significantly, pulling together a mere 11 extant plays by a single ancient Greek—way down from AOT‘s 32 by three.
For all that, Praxagora turns out to be a poor peg to hang an epic on, in large part because Kate Carson-Groner never manages to establish her as a force to be reckoned with. Even as her life’s trajectory is taking her from political prodigy to cosmos-hopping stateswoman, Carson-Groner’s Praxagora feels hapless, passive, even a little tired—someone dragging herself through amazing adventures. Which (a) puts her in odd opposition to the dynamism of Sasha Smith and Aja Wiltshire as her mom and sister respectively, and (b) makes all too plain Praxagora’s structural status as little more than a device for taping the show together.
Through 5/27: Fri-Sat 6:30 PM, Sun 4 PM, Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, the-hypocrites.com, $60 “includes a light meal and snacks.”
