PlayFest 2011 Version 2.0 (Day 2)
PlayFest 2011Version 2.0 (Day 2)
Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Orlando FL</strong>
Friday Nov 3 – The Odyssey by Charlie Bethel
Starting a high profile show like this at 6 pm on a Friday tempts the good intentions of Orlando’s Transportation Gods and a slow I-4 held this show’s open for about 5 minutes. Last year Bethel’s fluid and funny “Beowulf” was a huge crowd favorite, and I give this man points for adapting Homer’s “The Odyssey” into a 75 minute modern user-friendly romp in only a year’s worth of research and writing.
I’m sure you’ve translated the original from Greek to Latin somewhere along the line, but the story boils down to this: At the end of the Trojan War Odysseus rapes, pillages and plunders Troy and desecrates the local temples. Greek gods were OK with the R, P & P but draw the line at D: Odysseus is cursed to spend a decade trying to get home and when he does everything has just gone to hell in a hand truck. The journey take him far and wide, and just like a good horror film his friend disappear in a variety of bloody and pointless deaths, leaving him to wash up on shore wet, bloody and alone. Only the good intentions of Athena and his native sneakiness allow him to rescue his incredibly loyal wife from every gold digging Lothario in Syracuse. He’s a hero, but all his actions only serve to prolong his misery and he tends to take naps at the worst possible moments. But there’s a moral – respect the divine, keep one step ahead of everyone, stay vigilant, and keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Bethel’s niche is telling large stories in a one man format. His mix of colloquial slang and archaic language is a good balance of “what it was really like” and “what we can understand today.” “Rosy Fingered Dawn” marks his scene changes, but I would have liked a bit more of “Wine Dark Sea” or “Grey Eyed Dusk.” He relates the eye gouging of Cyclops with bloody relish, spews guts and body parts all over the nice clean marble floor and points out the Gods become upset when humans have more sex than they do. But Odysseus seems to get his share of action with a variety of supernatural chicks; maybe that’s part of his woe.
Odysseus’ world is on the verge of the supernatural Old Days and the mundane Modern World. Prayers are answered, prophesies come true, the evil are punished and virtuous rewarded, although not without having to preserver through heartbreaking misery and back breaking labors. If you listen carefully, you can hear whispers of the Christian mythos – the archetypes of Joseph Campbell tie the Ancient Greek and Middle European and Post Modern American fears together. Study them with Mr. Bethel, and you will laugh and you will cry and you will never be bored.
More information about PlayFest may be found at http://orlandoshakes.org/plays-events/playfest/index.html
