Homer's The Odyssey, which dates from 725 to 675 BCE, has long been considered a foundational work of Western literature. The epic chronicles the voyage of Odysseus, who is traveling home after the long Trojan War. Unlike many mortal figures in Greek mythology, Odysseus was famed for neither his strength, like Hercules or Ajax, nor his political power, like Agamemnon, but instead for his intelligence and cunning.
Homer's poem was, for centuries, an essential read for anyone lucky enough to attain an education in Europe. Along with The Iliad, it's a defining text in the field of the classics and in the genre of the epic. Today, the story of Odysseus's voyage is well-known across the world and has influenced scores of writers, artists, and historians.
The poem has also been adapted for children and young readers and has been issued by Marvel as a comic book. The Odyssey, and the telling of a journey home, has inspired many works of art and fiction such as James Joyce's Ulysses (1922); Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad (2005) and the Coen brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).
An everyman’s tale and a romance, the Odyssey is filled with adventure, longing and temptation, the struggle between good and evil, and hard-won triumph. It is an enduring classic because its hero, Odysseus, and his story, though centuries old, are remarkably human and continue to grip the contemporary imagination. The Odyssey is often cited by critics as being one of the greatest stories ever told. Despite being blander in expression and sometimes more diffuse in the progress of its action than Homer’s other well-known work, the Iliad, the Odyssey provides an even more complex and harmonious structure. The poem is built upon a series of conversations and speeches, in which individual characters emerge as they confront each other and the gods with advice, inquiry, request, resignation, and passion—and the struggle against the gods, nature, and monstrous forces is presented with the help of a poetical language of great simplicity and subtlety. The Odyssey has endured for more than 2,700 years not as the result of its antiquity and its place in Greek culture but rather because of its timeless ability to express on a massive scale so much of the triumph and the frustration of human life.
OUR PRODUCTION: Mary Zimmerman is a fantastic playwright (we did her adaptation of Metamorphoses here a few years ago). She has given directors and actors so much freedom to bring this exciting story to life.
The result of her production is the largest cast we've ever had in a play at Riverton, 25 pounds of glitter, a bicycle, cyclops, musical underscoring and of course, a fantastically creative team of actors and student designers to pull this show off. We are so happy you're here and hope you enjoy the show!
--Mr. Clin Eaton
