An Iliad

NOTICE: Performances of An Iliad after March 11, 2020 were cancelled due to COVID-19. Ticket-holders were able to stream the production.

Court reimagines its electric production of An Iliad, the one-man adaptation of Homer’s Iliad, in a groundbreaking site-specific performance not to be missed. Combining promenade-style elements throughout the Oriental Institute’s galleries, as well as a seated portion performed in the OI’s Persian Gallery, this explosive combination of theatre and history brings the epic poem to life in a thrilling new way. This partnership with the OI will add environmental and thematic context to Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s one-man adaptation of Homer’s Iliad.

Directed by Court’s Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, Charles Newell, and starring Timothy Edward Kane as The Poet, Court’s production of An Iliad was heralded as “one of the most remarkable performances of the theatrical year” by Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune. 

Please note: The beginning portion of the performance will require audience members to walk through the museum before being seated in the Persian Gallery.

An Iliad is sponsored by 

Photo of Timothy Edward Kane and Neo-Assyrian human-headed winged bull or lamassu, reign of Sargon II (reign 721–705 BC), excavated by Oriental Institute archaeologists at Khorsabad (ancient Dur-Sharrukin), Iraq, in 1929. (photo by Joe Mazza)