Review: DANTE'S INFERNO a Spectacle at Synetic Theater

Those people building ambitious commercial haunted houses this month might just call if quits when they see how much they've been outdone by the inventiveness and intent of Synetic Theater's "Dante's Inferno."

The famous descent into hell is fairly palpable in a vivid depiction that is also, in the tradition of the unique theater, purely visual.

"Abandon all words, ye who enter here" has been the motto of Synetic from the start, and they've already put several of the wordiest productions under their belt in their Silent Shakespeare series.

But Dante represented another challenge altogether.

"Thirty-three cantos, 14,000 lines, 53 characters in 90 minutes?" producer and founding artistic director Paata Tsikurishvili shrugged before the curtain. His adaptation with Nathan Weinberger faced his own version of hell in its adaptation.

With a little bit of refresher on the various rings in the program, director and founding choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili dives in, with an intense piece that blends silent movies with expressionism.

Anastasia Simes' set is angular and jarring, opening trap doors to other levels, with jagged mountains moving in and out, and characters flipping off of them. Her costumes are striking as well, from the regal red worn by Vato Tsikurishvili's brooding Dante at the center of the action to the tattered wrappings of the souls who haunts him.

With Tori Bertocci as his Beatrice, who appears to him as if to console and inspire him - she is also caught in the danger as the fall to hades continues. Alex Mills' Virgil is there to help as well, but how can he? with so many swirling demons, devils and at least one corrupt pope (Chris Galindo).

There isn't a choreographer credited per set, but Alex Mills is listed as movement director, Vato Tsikurishvili as fight director (as if being lead wasn't enough work).

It wouldn't work nearly as well without the eerily effective music composition of Konstantine Lortkipanidze that continues throughout the 90-minute work (Irakli Kavsadze is director of music).

The lighting by Mary Keegan is bold and effective as well, making some characters when they are side-lit seem like they are floating, or others writhing behind cheesecloth in an array of graves much scarier than any in the rubber-masked Halloween variety.

It's a surprisingly fast-moving descent into this particular hell, with levels indicated by jagged edged door openings and encounters with packs of, in order, the lustful, the glutton, the deceivers, the greedy, the wrathful, the hypocrites and traitors before bottoming out in the Forest of Suicides.

Navigating his way to the end means he can be inspired to write his work, using something Synetic avoided all along, words.

Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Advisory: Because of violence and partial nudity, recommended for 16 and over.

Photo credit: Toni Bertocci and Vato Tsikurishvili in "Dante's Inferno" at Synetic Theater. Photo by Koko Lanham.

Dante's Inferno continues through Oct. 30 at Synetic Theater, 1800 S. Bell St., Crystal City, Arlington, Va. Tickets at 866-811-4111 or www.synetictheater.org.

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