Reviewed by JOHN TOWNSEND

Special to the Star Tribune

Rah Kojis as Hades, and Emily Gergen Bar as Perspehone. / Photo by Scott Pakudaitis.

The butch-femme dynamic between women is brazenly applied to the male/female relationship in one of the ancient Mediterranean's enduring myths now being performed outdoors in Bedlam Theatre's parking lot.

Infiamatti Fire Circus's Persephone: Reign of Fire, a collaboration steered by director Rah Kojis and choreographer Kristin Freya, is an ideal choice for this company that combines physical acting with daring feats involving fire and pyrotechnics by Northern Lighters Pyrotechnics. Fire performers play reptilian monsters that seem to spring from a primeval collective unconscious. Hades twirls her fiery whip and appears to even swallow flames! The ensemble masterfully manipulates pinwheels of fire, fans of fire, and even Hades's chariot storms through with what seems to be flags of fire.

At the beginning one notices that Fire Safety Lead Trevor Wennblom's crew is stationed at staggered buckets of water between the audience and the playing area as nymphs flitter and flicker below and behind three scrims like human fireflies. They beckon beguiling Emily Gergen Bar as Persephone. She enters with an utterly mystical voice that sounds something like yodeling and other-worldly intonations, reminscent of Ruth Mackenzie's Finnish-based folk sound.

Not to be outdone, Kojis herself, plays a corseted, whip-cracking Hades, to usher Persephone to the underworld. Her fiery chariot is drawn by Tony Biele wearing a three-headed mask and headpiece. eyes glaring, as Cerberus, the three-headed canine gatekeeper.

It's all deliciously over the top with a style that unabashedly draws from Grand Guignol. Naomi Joy's original music with Asylum Soundsytem is both celestial and menacing, creating an oddly magnificent soundscape for this pagan-like ritual of a performance. Kristi Ternes and Rosemary Fister's shadow puppet design is beautifully evoked on the scrims with lighting by Ian Knodel. The audience Sunday night was ecstatic.