Sometimes student or graduate companies just don't understand how the world works. There are plays that they can do and those, such as Mary Zimmerman's modern language version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, that no one in their right mind would even think about, if only because you need a swimming pool as an integral part of the set.
Once in a thousand times, the impossible comes off and when it does, it proves doubly impressive. Spotting the obvious problem, Black Lens have brought 21 Mohammed's to the mountain, or in this case hotel swimming pool.
There, a cast slimmed down to five, works through most parts of Miss Zimmerman's play, which worked so well on Broadway, utilising what one imagines was a budget with five or six more noughts on the end.
These tales from Ovid, and in one case Rilke, are beautifully realised on the pool's edge but much more so in the well-lit water itself. Indeed, the pool almost becomes an extra character in the play.
After a brief, poetic description of "bodies changing into new shapes" when man was created, the space is occupied almost equally by humans and Gods.
Holding the narrative together is the tale of a Henry Finnegan's Estuarine-accented Midas, who having begged Andrew Jonson's Bacchus for the gift of changing everything he touches to gold, does exactly that to his beloved young daughter (Kirsty Clydesdale).
The remainder of the hour-long, late-night show leads back to the moment when his quest to release her is complete.
We see Orpheus following Rebecca Hawley's Eurydice into the watery underworld, and then leaving her there through human weakness; Erysicthon, the self-cannibalising cynic who sells his mother to assuage his insatiable hunger; Phaeton the son of the sun's struggle to control daddy's vehicle; and two weird marriages, blind Eros and the sweet-voiced Rebecca Palmstrom as Psyche the soul and finally a candle-lit old couple who are allowed eternal companionship.
However, the very best tale is that of Pomona the wood nymph, which leads to a tragic story within a story, as Myrrha desires and sleeps with her handsome father in the night's shockingly erotic highlight.
Under the sure direction of Deirdre Mullins, Black Lens has produced a very humorous and entertaining tale of men and Gods, making the most of their setting, the latest technology and one would guess the local charity shop for the lavish costumes that get a thorough soaking every night.
This show may not quite match the Broadway original, especially in the tale of Phaeton but, thanks to the enthusiasm of all involved, is one to watch and the members of this adventurous young company well worth following.