Telemachus (Sasha Andreev) experiences the charms of Helen (Nora Montanez). Photo: Petronella Ytsma.
Park Square Theatre has launched a world premiere commission of the most famous of tall tales, The Odyssey. Although Homer’s version is the one we know, it most certainly has had its share of individual embellishments, as told by storytellers for generations. William Randall Beard’s version of Odysseus’ wanderings after the Trojan War sticks pretty close to home – Circe, the Cyclops and the Sirens are all there – with the role of Odysseus’ son, Telemachus padded a bit, which serves to weave the elements together, even as we watch Penelope weaving and dismantled the shroud she claims to be preparing for Odysseus’ funeral.
If a more traditional approach suits you, this straightforward rendering will be comfortable and entertaining. Imaginative use of creative dramatics techniques, accomplished cleanly on a unit set of levels and ancient-looking columns by Joel Sass, takes us seamlessly from one locale to another, helped along by Michael P. Kittel’s lighting. Beard and director Richard Cook succeeded in acting out the story, slightly more suited to modern audiences.
Slightly. Watching this show was a little like walking into a 1970’s-era house that had never been updated. If you like that style, I guess there’s nothing wrong with it. But to my mind, audiences in 2011 aren’t going to buy into Athena (or anyone) wielding an imaginary sword (especially with a real wine goblet so recently in the other hand), or men crawling around on the floor baaing like sheep, or grunting like pigs and pawing the stage’s apron with cloven hoofs on their hands.
Unless the schtick is done with a sense of humor. What was confusing for us was not knowing just what this production wanted to be. Should we be taking the pigs seriously? Or the air swords? Really? It was either supposed to be funny and it wasn’t funny enough, or we were supposed to take it seriously and couldn’t.
Why not play this for entertainment – as the ancient Greeks surely did – and cue the audience on the laughs? There’s plenty that’s amusing, from Helen’s vanity and daffy wig to Odysseus’ strutting and posturing in bare feet and a short toga that accentuated his slight paunch. Go for it! There was more than enough talent on that stage to finesse dozens of moments that were so puzzling in tone that I forgot to follow the plot. (Which group of sailors is languishing on stage now? Or are they drunken suitors?)
More to the point, this production was poised to be a rollicking, epic journey manipulated by egotistical gods. So much to satirize that wasn’t. The insights inherent in the original’s metaphors and ironies could have been very funny indeed in this literal retelling of it, once again illustrating that the lessons in the story are timeless. As it was, it took itself too seriously. The result was that it was a little silly.
 The Odyssey runs through February 6.