As a kid I was obsessed with ancient Greek myths. To me they seemed just as rich as the superhero and science fiction stories of my youth; I can remember having fierce arguments with my friends about who was faster, Hermes or the Flash, or whether Superman would be turned into stone by Medusa. By the time I was in college these stories seemed to be just barley under the surface of almost everything I was studying, but they still seamed to provoke argument. I can remember having debates as to whether Western culture was capable of creating truly new stories, or was it just that these old dudes so thoroughly mapped human nature through narrative and archetype that their influence was inescapable?

This year's second annual SF Olympians fest confronts many of these same questions. After the success of last year's run, which featured 12 plays for 12 Olympians, this year they decided to go bigger with over 20 shows based on celestial bodies. Some of the performances are full lengths, while others are nights with multiple one acts.

The play I saw last night, Uranus, was an hour and a half long musical. It was set in 1956 and focused on the creative and generational tensions within a once successful family band whose country music falls out of favor with the introduction of rock 'n' roll. This bizarre hybrid of the Original myth — which involves incest, pedophilia, and patricide through castration — had surprisingly good musical numbers, complete with multiple audience sing-alongs.

The SF Olympians festival runs through the end of the month at the Exit Theater. I highly recommend you check one of these performances out.