The Odyssey

Homer’s Classic reinterpreted by Derek Walcott

Directed By: Peter Hinton

Stratford Festival Of Canada

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Runs: July 27^th to September 28^th 2007

Studio Theatre

3 Stars

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey

Contains mature themes, sexual situations and partial nudity. It will not be suitable for younger children.

Joseph Campbell based much of his ideas for the heroes’ journey on formative adventure texts such as Homer’s Odyssey. We are still following that format in Homer’s Odyssey in one way or another in story form today…and they say there are no new ideas…and for good reason. Socrates commentary on originality over two thousand years ago seems to have not wavered, so what better to do if originality has become a dead art form then to reinvent those original ideas? Repackage Homer and use the text as subtext for politics in your homeland? Derek Walcott did just that; transcending The Odyssey from a Greek epic journey to a stylized commentary on the politics of the Caribbean.

So with a retelling of an old journey, St Lucia born Walcott’s version of The Odyssey is presented at this years Stratford Festival of Canada for pondering. Originally commissioned for stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company of England in 1993, Walcott’s Odyssey seems aptly fitted for the Shakespearean stage of The Studio Theatre. The smallest venue at the Stratford Festival of Canada known for putting on more ‘daring’ productions was suited up in a rusty old car, director Peter Hinton’s Canadiana seeping through in the ‘road journey’ motif. The car worked as a multitude of modes of transport but was most intriguing as a ship flanked by men swaying in synchronized motion to the ‘turbulent waves.’ 

I seem to be getting ahead of myself here; The Odyssey in its original form is about Odysseus’ journey back home after the Trojan Wars; known for inventing the Trojan horse he now seeks to return home. Twenty years later he is lucky enough to kiss the cold front steps of his house, where his devoted wife Penelope waits for his return amidst a pack of hungry suitors. Along Odysseus’ journey two decades long (making rush hour traffic look like a short trip back home) he comes across a confectionary of monsters, mythical creatures and most of all, he confronts his own mortality as a man on more than one occasion.

The dilapidated car sits centre stage as a man in a corner, ‘the seer’ (Jeremiah Sparks) hums a quasi-gospel sounding tune while the house lights stay up for possibly a good ten minutes before the production officially starts. Waves are heard rolling and crashing in the background somewhere, and the audience is lulled into an almost hypnotic state. Resting on the sound of the waves and Sparks humming drew the audience energy to a calm state, and almost allowing the audience to be opened up to a world where myth exists.

When the production eventually starts up with a narrative from the seerer, Blind Billy Blue (Sparks) what is brought forth can only be described as a pairing of an original storytelling with bohemian theatrics. Stylistically speaking, this is a captivating production if not a little disorientating at times. A rich blue paint colour vibrates off the ground, a blood red cloth draped over the car at times, huge glowing orbs, and a paper mache head of a Cyclops with a truly brilliant ¾ length coat (cream, with red embroidering to look like veins up and down, and images of faces screaming), an aged Helen of Troy trying to retract her beauty with the Dolly Parton school of cosmetics; all of these unique visual images had me feeling I was sat watching something possibly from cirque du soleil. The audience was captivated in trying to decode what they were watching.

Overall the performances had some great comedic moments, playing intentionally over the top often, and I kept thinking to myself, the cast must be exhausted after every performance. The cast did a lot of changing of character and running around, giving the air a kinetic feel. At times I felt it was too much movement and not enough action; lots of running and jumping more akin to improv.

Standout performances were seen by Jeremiah Sparks as Blind Billy Blue, Allegra Fulton as Helen of Troy, Penelope and Circe (rather harmonious casting to play these three roles in one actor), and the always illuminescent Sophia Walker. I wasn’t terribly astounded with Nigel Shawn Williams performance as Odysseus, but it wasn’t something worth panning either; his performance felt a little middle-road (even with the running about!).

The second half of the performance really seemed to be ‘in the thick’ of the Homeric Odyssey, culminating in a rather interesting interpretation of the finale reminiscent of a Hockey game half time playing ‘We Will Rock You;’ I don’t want to give too much away, but it was a definitely an interesting finale. The play had its sexually explicit moment which was also stylized but perhaps a little too raunchy for a majority retired audience; I suspect theatre goers between the ages of 18 to 65 won’t consider it that shocking considering what’s on TV. I couldn’t quite categorize this production, it didn’t feel messy, or tidy, it wasn’t traditional or too ‘out of the box;’ it reminded me of the saying ‘go big or go home,’ as if Hinton had the studio theatre and in order to perform an epic, Hinton asked himself how would he stage such an epic in such a confined space and yet make it as magnanimous as he possibly could?

Artistic credits
Director / PETER HINTON

Set Designer / CAROLYN M. SMITH
Costume Designer / KATHERINE LUBIENSKI
Ian & Molly Lindsay Young Design Fellow
Lighting Designer / ROBERT THOMSON
Composer / JEREMIAH SPARKS
Sound Designer / TODD CHARLTON
Fight Director / JOHN STEAD
Movement / JO LESLIE The cast
Eurycleia / BARBARA BARNES-HOPKINS
Anemone / LISA BERRY
Eumaus / WALTER BORDEN
Anticlea / JOYCE CAMPION
Telemachus / IN-SURP CHOI
Menelaus / IAN DEAKIN
Thersites / PAUL ESSIEMBRE
Agamemnon / EDOUARD FONTAINE
Nestor / DAVID FRANCIS
Penelope / ALLEGRA FULTON
Cyclops / ROY LEWIS
Athena / JENNIFER MOREHOUSE
Chloe / ERIN NEAL
Ajax / STEVE ROSS
Blind Billy Blue / JEREMIAH SPARKS
Nausicaa / SOPHIA WALKER
Odysseus / NIGEL SHAWN WILLIAMS

Assistant Director / ALISON SEALY-SMITH

Stage Manager / BRIAN SCOTT
Assistant Stage Manager / ANGELA MARSHALL
Apprentice Stage Manager / DARREN BARLOW
Production Assistant / LUCY MARTIN
Production Stage Manager / MARYLU MOYER