The great Roman poet Ovid was said to be so popular in his day that there remains Ovidian graffiti on the walls of Pompeii even today.

“Metamorphoses” is playwright Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of Ovid’s epic poem, identified by scholars as the best classical source of more than 250 myths. Ovid is said to have been a major inspiration to Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton.

It is no wonder then that Zimmerman chose Ovid’s classic poem in order to explore what is true for the tadpole and the chrysalis, as much as it is for each human. That is: the great possibility of one’s transformation.

In short, Ovid knew something about the human condition.

The play opens at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts on Friday, June 10 and plays through Saturday, June 25.

Set in and around a large pool of water, Zimmerman’s critical masterpiece juxtaposes the ancient and the modern in both language and image, and offers up transformation, not only for the characters of myths that she features, but for the audience as well.

Directed by Robert Prosch, the play features an ensemble of actors working in and out of the water to tell the stories of such luminary lights of ancient mythology as Midas and Silenus, Erysichthon and Ceres, Alcyone and King Ceyx, Orpheus and Eurydice, Apollo and Phaeton, Baucis and Philemon, Pomona and Vertumnus, and Psyche and Eros, among others.

Each vignette, and the play itself, is about change, which is fairly obvious from the title. But it is love, which takes on various forms and leads the bearers to many things, both good and bad, that is the main source of these changes. Zimmerman has taken stories that are thousands of years old and has made them familiar to a contemporary audience.

But, beyond the words of Ovid and Zimmerman, there is the water, which the playwright added later, after writing the piece.

Prosch said that the water represents multiple facets of the play including the medium in which the actors must work and as a visual element of the set. But its most important function is that, in its slippery liquidity, it is the perfect representation of that which can never stay the same.

“The water is really an additional actor with a life and characteristics of its own,” Prosch said.

“Additionally, the water ‘speaks’ as well,” he said. Just the sound the water makes when the actors move around in it, had to be considered when creating the movement or stage action of the performers.

As for the direction of the play itself, Prosch thought about the larger themes of mythos.

“Overall, the production utilizes a series of ancient myths that demonstrate the balance, or imbalance, of rational thinking (Apollonian philosophy) and emotional balance (Dionysian philosophy) in love and relationships,” he said.

“The essence of ‘Metamorphoses’ is a glimpse into our own souls — a very personal moment for each of us as we experience the balance and comfort, or the frustration, tragedy, or loss of love in our lives.”

Though Prosch has not had extensive experience directing non-musical theater, he said his long-term experience as an opera and musical theater performer and director has prepared him for this present task.

“It has been a very positive and rewarding experience stepping back in as a director,” Prosch said.

“In many ways I had forgotten the rewards of working with fantastic actors to develop a phenomenal production, and that has all come rushing back again.”

For Zimmerman, the play reached the pinnacle of success when it moved to Broadway after opening six years before that in Chicago in 1996.

When she was interviewed by Bill Moyers, the play had opened in New York two days after 9/11. That was when one of its lines, previously not significant to her, became one of the most important in the play. It’s in the end during the story of Baucis and Philemon. There is a basket of apples and someone says, “Remember how apples smell?”

“And then everyone pauses and remembers,” Zimmerman said.

“And that’s a very, very important line to me right now, because there’s a lot of rhetoric about how everything is changed, nothing will be the same, everything is different, we can’t go back, everything is lost, it’s all different, everything is over and done with. But the natural world — the smell of apples — to me remains innocent. Don’t lose sight of the fact that there is still beauty in the world, and there is still love in the world, and these simple pleasures in the world, which are indelible.”

The cast of “Metamorphoses” includes Jennifer Bondelid, Morgan Bondelid, Katy Brooks, Anthony Caldwell, Max Cole-Takanikos, Gwen Jones, Kent Junge, Savannah True Randall, Tristan Steel, Katie Woodzick and Dwight Zehm. The creative team includes Jason Dittmer (scenic design), Val Johnson (costume design), Ann Deacon (lighting design), Jim Riley (dramaturg), Jennifer Bondelid (movement coach) and Sean Brennan (properties).

Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for seniors/military and $12 for youths, except Sundays when all seats are $12.

“Metamorphoses” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays through Saturday, June 25.

For tickets and information, call 221-8268 or visit www.WICAonline.com.