@ Shakespeare Dallas: Scenes From ‘The Odyssey’
Photos by Linda Blase
—Jan Farrington
Wednesday evening (6/12) was a preview performance of The Odyssey at Shakespeare Dallas—but I was booked solid for other shows the rest of the week, and wanted to see this.
It was a cool and breezy evening in the Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre. We spread the blankets, dusted off the folding chairs, and sat down listening to a pre-show soundscape of ocean waves and calling sea gulls.
This is theater-maker Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of “Scenes From ‘The Odyssey’”—so of course there’s plenty of play, and clever use of objects that become something else…and often something magical. Ships at sea are concocted from blue chairs or long azure cloths literally “waved” by sailors. Sometimes swaying sailors become the ship itself, with Captain Odysseus in their midst.
Zimmerman is best known for winning the Tony as Best Director in the early 2000s for her sexy and fanciful adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses—ancient myths playing out around a huge oblong pool for the stage. Mythic characters swam, loved, despaired, wrestled with fate, and got the first rows of the audience pretty wet. (Lincoln Center provided towels.)
This was the first performance of the 52nd season for Shakespeare Dallas (dress rehearsal was the evening after) and the rhythms hadn’t quite settled in—but the cast was clearly rarin’ to go. This is the story of Odysseus (aka Ulysses), who leaves wife and son (sweet-voiced Caitlin Chapa is Penelope, Rudy Lopez plays young Telemachus) to fight the Trojan war—and doesn’t get home, what with one goddess or another, until more than 20 years later.
He’s perhaps one of theater/literature’s first “trickster” characters: always looking for and playing the angles, zigging away from disaster and somehow coming up roses. Odysseus (Adrian Godinez projects a nice combo of brains and action-figure) plays a wily chess game with everybody around him: goddesses, monsters, devils, his expendable (but jolly) crewmen. And the Greek gods and goddesses, always hanging around and mixing with human lives, are crazy about the guy’s quick wit, his bendy moral compass—and his iron will to get home.
Athena (Nicole Berastequi is strong and cool as the goddess of wisdom) is Odysseus’ special champion; he’s smart, and she loves that. His enemy is the sea god Poseidon (muscle-y Brandon Wetch), who can hold a grudge forever: Odysseus fought with the Greek army (Poseidon favored the Trojans), invented the “Trojan Horse” that won the war, and blinded the god’s Cyclops son. Needless to say, Poseidon throws everything in or on the ocean at Odysseus, trying to “give him a rough ride” home.
Odyssey is co-directed by quite a crew: Danielle Georgiou, Justin Locklear, Danny Anchondo Jr., and Jenni Stewart, who keep energy high and wrangle the big cast well. The show is colorful, the characters broad but clearly drawn—and it’s fun to rediscover those fuzzy memories of Greek myths and the wild stories surrounding Odysseus’ voyage. Sailors turned into pigs? Who knew flat-bottomed baskets could become so oinky? A Cyclops munching on the crew—and then hawking bits back up? (Your tweens will love this.) There’s a slinky dance from the lovely Circe (Janel Agbor) and plenty of Caribbean TLC from Calypso (Lisette Sandoval-Perez), the island goddess Odysseus “accidentally” visits more than once. (It’s not unfaithful if you’re under a spell, right?)
Bethany Gabrielle Mejorado plays pretty princess Nausicaa, who rescues our guy, and Celeste Perez hits strong emotions as a silhouette of Odysseus’ long-dead mother, met in his mid-story trip to the Underworld. Even the famous soothsayer Teiresias (Brandon Whitlock) turns up to say a sooth (apologies to Nathan Lane in Forum) that predicts a bit of Odysseus’ future.
The god Hermes (David Helms) makes a comic messenger boy; he’s under the thumb of uber god Zeus (a black-and-white projection whose words we could barely decipher: please up the volume and clarity if you can, SD). Telemachus, the barely grown son, is played by Lopez with a two-day stubble and a big red balloon. (Arrested development ‘til Dad comes home?) And Brandon Wetch is impressive as both trident-carrying Poseidon and the full-of-himself Antinous, one of the suitors wooing Penelope—and turning Odysseus’ home into Ithaca’s rowdiest pub.
The ensemble gets quite a workout in Odyssey, and does much running/dancing up and down the grassy center aisle—watch your toes. Dynamic music by co-director Anchondo (love the drumming)….Adrian Churchill’s multi-level arched and columned set has gravitas, and is lit well by Lori Honeycutt….Costumes are by Ryan Matthieu Smith, always welcome on area stages (the ensemble of sirens are a shimmy of scarlet)….And puppets (from the huge Cyclops to a sad old dog) are by co-director Locklear with Cindy Ernst Godinez, who also organized the many props.
Scenes From ‘The Odyssey’ runs through July 19; the season’s second show Twelfth Night begins next week on June 19 and runs through July 21, alternating with Odyssey. Check website for dates.
WHEN: June 12-July 21, 2024
WHERE: Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre, 1500 Tenison Parkway, Dallas
WEB: shakespearedallas.org
