‘Odyssey’ shows hero’s journey through female lens
Editor’s note — This article won third place for best review in the National Newspaper Association’s 2024 Better Newspapers Contest.
“Odyssey,” from playwright Lisa Peterson, is making its world premiere at Marin Theatre Co. in association with New York’s The Acting Co. Based on Emily Wilson’s 2018 translation of Homer’s “The Odyssey,” the first by a woman, Peterson’s play depicts the hero’s journey through a female lens.
Homer’s original epic poem with monsters, sirens and shipwreck is focused on mythical king Odysseus’ decades-long struggle to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. In translating these events, Wilson was intrigued by the women’s roles in this tale — Penelope, Anticlea, Arete, Calypso, Circe and Athena. In adapting Wilson’s work, Peterson chose to offer a different story of overcoming obstacles, and she wrote a script featuring four women refugees from the Middle East, the Balkans and Africa: Zee (Zamo Mlengana), Hana (Anya Whelan-Smith), Béa (Sophie Zmorrod), and Anoud (Layla Khoshnoudi), who have escaped conflict in their respective home countries and are detained together in a relocation center in Greece on the isle of Lesbos.
Anoud introduces a copy of “The Odyssey” to the group, recalling her time reading from its pages with her father, and they distract and console themselves with an amateur reading and re-enactment of the events.
The cast’s handling of classic “Dead White Males” material is memorably creative: each takes a turn playing the hero Odysseus, playfully renamed by them as “O,” and, as they free their imaginations, they eventually transform from victims to creators. Shifting nicely from mock braggadocios to teasing temptresses, each character reminds of the mystical aspects as well as the naughty bits of Homer’s original story, and it’s less a kick to a supposedly sacred cow and potentially more a nod to discovering and embracing the possible while learning not only to survive but to thrive.
Dialogue sparkles with such memorable gems as, “Yes, Circe was a bad-ass!” and references to “the seeds that are buried in story” and “gods getting in the way of karma.” The sprinkling of humorous lines such as “Yes, men can be beasts” — emphasized Greek chorus-style, and with recorded cows mooing — and surprising bursts of music and original songs bring delight.
The set is spare, as a detention facility would be, but more than adequately serves as a portal between story-present and story-past. The sound work — including a crackly-to-the-point-of-inaudible loud speaker, spooky voice-overs and the dramatic storm — is appreciated, especially as it contributes to the overall bleakness of the setting. The lighting elements both emphasize that bleakness as well as brilliantly highlight the playful aspects of Homer’s tale as it is presented “O”-style.
The production has been touted as important for its themes of hospitality to strangers as this relates to current news events, as well as to the time-transcendent importance of home and family. But the work quickly proves evident there is so much more here. Under Peterson’s direction, audience members are thrilled witnesses to these women pulling themselves through significant challenges in addition to their physical dislocation, whether it be the loss of a father figure, becoming a motherless daughter or suffering other, “Dark Night of the Soul”-like events.
This clever revisioning of Homer’s “The Odyssey” pays homage to women journeying solo through life toward home, toward family or to themselves. For this production, the audience is given a well-oiled cast and crew bringing the voice of hope to women who are alone and without moorings of home and family — in ancient times, at any time and maybe most especially in the current times: dislocated, but in banding together, not only making do, but rising above.
Energetic, entertaining and perhaps instructive, this production is a work that makes good on Marin Theatre Co.’s promise to “bring bold theatricality, humor, and grace to a story we all think we know.”
Michele Caprario is a freelance entertainment and lifestyles writer who has contributed to the Nob Hill Gazette, Marina Times, Splash Magazines and more.