According to Greek mythology, Prometheus created humans and tried to help them to survive in a world in which they were ill-equipped. The most prominent version of the legend involves Prometheus' attempt to educate his creations by stealing fire from Zeus and giving it to them for protection. In the story, he was punished by Zeus for this crime and chained to a rock for eternity, where birds would come and eat his liver every day only to have it grow back and be eaten again.In a moment that exemplified the magical possibilities of the theater, Jason Simon-Bierenbaum '11, his eyes ablaze with the reflection of his fiery staff-carefully crafted out of a lamp stand and tissue paper-said, "I believe Prometheus did not give the world fire. He showed the world we've always been burning and it's time we do something about it."

After these wise words of Simon-Bierenbaum during the concluding monologue of his senior thesis performance, Prometheus in the Flesh, the audience simultaneously erupted into applause. Simon-Bierenbaum, who in 45 minutes had portrayed 10 different versions of the demi god Prometheus, finally broke from his character and thanked his friends and professors for supporting him in his endeavor to create the show. And it had been quite an endeavor.

Simon-Bierenbaum, in the final lines of the play, confessed to having written and rehearsed the show within only the past week. This explained his use of a script for assistance, and it made the moments he tore his gaze away from the paper and moved crisply across the stage even more impressive. Simon-Bierenbaum, according to his program notes, had been "writing a Creative Writing thesis around the theme of the humanity in monsters and the monstrousness within humans" when he decided that he really related to Prometheus and had a lot of questions for him and situations in which he wanted to place him.

The one-man show, which took place in the Merrick Theater in the Spingold Theater Center Friday night, indirectly told about Prometheus, who was, as Simon-Bierenbaum described in his program, "a Titan . brother to Atlas . a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence."

Simon-Bierenbaum's play consisted of nine scenes in which he personified Prometheus the punk, actor, prisoner, comedian, child, poet, scientist, revolutionary, human and, lastly, the day-worker.

Most memorable among these sides of Prometheus was Prometheus the child, in which Simon-Bierenbaum, holding a book filled with tissue-paper fire, exclaimed at its beauty and admitted that he could never dance the way fire does, as he proceeded to stomp and leap across the stage with abandon.

But Simon-Bierenbaum was able to change seamlessly into all of the different interpretations of Prometheus-from feigning an interview with Oprah to accepting a Lifetime Achievement award in science.

He used these personas to make comments about life's greater truths; as he portrayed Prometheus the poet, he snuck in a beautiful insight about the symbolism of fire, "We grab onto what we can-breasts, guns, dollars-because the most beautiful things cannot be held."

The simplicity of the stage complemented this feeling of having many characters in one; the only props were a black wooden box, a rusted music stand, a small desk, the book and his fiery staff. He used his entire body to perform-tearing at his clothes, shouting from deep within his diaphragm and running back and forth with his glowing flame. Simon-Bierenbaum's words and movements easily filled the space and no other materials were necessary.

It was in the last scene that Prometheus and Simon-Bierenbaum merged. In fact, he hypothesized that in each of us there is a Prometheus, trying to make do with what we have been given. "It's all right to believe in myth," Simon-Bierenbaum said. "It sustained the Greeks for centuries.