En Petit Comité

The Odyssey

@ The Lyric Hammersmith

Great evening at the Theatre yesterday, for 'a trip based on Homer's epic' said the poster.
And what a trip!
Odysseus has just landed on the Nausicaa island and, unlike the book where he is welcomed by one of the king's daughter, is taken to the island's refugee camp, where he has to tell his story (the Lotus island, Circe the enchantress, the Cyclops, the Sirens....)

The set is very inventive, with the camp's interview room becoming Odysseus's boat in an instant, the mast rising from the floor, for example. Through great use of light, the stage becomes a cave, or even the land of the dead. There's live music being played throughout, with some rather haunting songs. How will they convey the sweet songs on the Sirens? (Who would actually dare to say his music could enchant whoever heard it?) Well they dont: As if you were one of Odysseus' companion with wax in your ears, all you hear is a heartbeat.
I told you: inventive.
And I am not even mentioning the Cyclop.

The cast is great: only the lead plays the same character throughout (Odysseus, obviously), and the 5 others play a good dozen parts, from Odysseus's wife Penelope to the goddesses Circe and Calypso, to Troyan refugees and Nausicaa border guards. They can play music, sing, use puppets, make us laugh, be quite moving and they can change costumes at the speed of light.

The other productions I have seen here in London were big American classics: Death of a Salesman and Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? This Odyssey was very different, but just as good.