Length: 100 minutes
Casting: Roles for 12-50 Actors
A comedy until it’s not.
SYNOPSIS: I mean, you know this story even if you don’t. It’s been told again and again in many ways.
Like the original, however, this version begins near the end. Odysseus has been away from his home for nearly two decades. He’d left to fight the Trojan War. His home has become infested with suitors vying to marry his wife Penelope and plotting to murder his son Telemachus. Goddess Athena sends Telemachus away and spurs the Gods to release Odysseus from Calypso’s island, where he has been languishing for years. He lands on the shore of a king, and then tells the story of his epic journey.
This version focuses on Odysseus’s character arc. While it begins as a slapstick comedy, as Odysseus loses men, the weight of the war that caused his perilous journey falls on him.
WHY THIS PLAY: This comedy is made to optimize cafetoriums, outdoor performance venues, and other non-traditional spaces.
The unique take hew close to the original in structure, while also reimagining the story for a modern audience. It has a number of design opportunities for ambitious producers, but it was written to be done with ‘whatever props and stuff you have lying around.’
It’s a large cast play for 12 or more flexible character actors. The instructions are ‘cast without regards to gender,’ because the roller coaster feeling that anyone can instantly play anyone is the only way the madcap tone of this play works.
TO READ THIS PLAY: Contact Briandaniel or check it out on the New Play Exchange.
Briandaniel Oglesby 