There is no question that Simon Armitage’s interpretation of one the most retold tales in Literature, Homer’s Odyssey – currently running at The Liverpool Everyman Theatre – is a sweeping, poignant, witty and thought provoking piece of theatre as any that will be staged this year.
Cleverly divided between the ancient past and the very present day, Smith – a high ranking government minister with a more than colourful past – is reluctantly dispatched to Turkey ahead of an upcoming general election to glad-hand at an England football match.
Following England’s doubtlessly dull victory, Smith is caught up in a bar brawl, “escapes” into the Bosphorus and drops out of sight, thereby signalling a trial by media which could potentially have devastating effects on his wife, Penelope, and son, Magnus.
During the interim, the Homer version of Odysseus takes us on a journey of trials and temptations that are enough to turn the heads of even the most saintly, whilst Armitage’s 2015 participants try – badly – to hold things together.
Thanks to some quite breathtaking direction from Nick Bagnall, a fabulous cast and a script that simply sparkles with ingenuity, hold things together they most certainly do and what results is an evening of deep emotion sprinkled liberally with moments of high-near-pantomime farce.
As Smith / Odysseus, Colin Tierney puts in a performance that is as superbly balanced as the scales of justice themselves. At once as deep and emotional as he is whimsical, Tierney’s presentation has the audience constantly second-guessing the man’s motives and how the old and the new intertwines.
Excellent too as Anthea (the Prime Minister’s daughter-cum-PA) / Athena is Polly Frame who, particularly as the harassed underling trying to hold together a government, is astonishingly controlled with her timing, mannerisms and delivery all combining into what evolves into a faultless representation of a woman under extreme pressure, juxtaposed by calm authority an ethereal Goddess who controls the world.
This is particularly true when – as Frame most often does – she interacts with the superb Simon Dutton as the potty-mouthed Prime Minister whose exaggeratedly colourful ego-manical tendencies are so gloriously manifest here, it is impossible not to wish he really were in power just so’s we could vote him out.
There are moments when it can’t be pinpointed whether or not the “humour” is deliberately laid out or not – Odysseus and The Cyclops ranks alongside the death of Bodgit in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist staged here some years ago as a numbingly unwarranted moment of uninvited merriment – but this notwithstanding, Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead remains a highly polished, inventive and energetic retelling of an ancient tale that everybody who sees it will be able to identify with.
The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead
The Liverpool Everyman Theatre
September 25 – October 17
Author: Simon Armitage
Director: Nick Bagnall
Cast Includes: Colin Tierney, Polly Frame, Simon Dutton, Susi Trayling, Lee Armstrong, Roger Evans, Danusia Samal, Chris Reilly, Sule Rimi, David Hartley, Ranjit Krishnamma
Running Time: 3 hours
PR Rating ***** Intoxicatingly Inventive