Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
October 20, 2011
The Homeric Question
Best question I’ve gotten so far about An Iliad:
“So…wait…is it a guy standing on stage speaking the text of The Iliad or what?”
(Although the answer is most definitely NO, it should be noted that Court is hosting a “Homerathon” event in conjunction with University of Chicago’s Classical Entertainment Society where the entertainment will be just that: a person (actually MANY people) standing on stage speaking the text of The Iliad. But I digress…that is a subject for another blog post.)
Anyway, this question has made me realize that perhaps I’ve been a little too mysterious in my past blog posts regarding exactly what An Iliad is all about. So! Here it is folks. An Iliad exposé just for you!
1) Where did this show come from—in 50 words or less?
It went something like this: The US is at war. Lisa Peterson wants to adapt a play about war. She teams up with actor Denis O’Hare. They decide to adapt Western Civilization’s ultimate war story, Homer’s Iliad. They create a unique adaptation process. They read a section of The Iliad. Denis improvs what they’ve just read. Lisa records it. They repeat this process many times. An Iliad is born.
2) What is this show about?
War. The Trojan War. The timelessness of war. The glory of war. The horror of war. The Greeks at war. The Trojans at war. Achilles at war. Hector at war. Families at war. Civilizations at war. The gods at war. The mortals at war. And, of course, all of the moral, psychological, and emotional repercussions .
3) So if it’s not a guy standing on stage speaking the text of The Iliad, what is it?
Well, I can’t say exactly yet because that’s what rehearsal is for, but I can tell you the following: The “guy” is called “The Poet.” The Poet tells the story on stage, it’s true, but he does so through transforming into an entire ensemble of mythological characters including Hector, Achilles, Agamemnon, Paris, Hecuba, Helen, Andromache, Patroclus, Thetis, Hermes, and Priam, to name a few. And I can say with utmost certainty that he’s not going to stand in one place while he does it. Imagine the set is a canvas and The Poet is a paintbrush. He is going to paint us this story over the ENTIRE set. And it’s a really cool set. But more on that later.
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