The Odyssey

Our Review:

6 March 2006

David Farr’s adaptation of The Odyssey gloriously updates Homer for the modern age. It loses none of the power of the original but adds a slice of modern-day political realism as it compares the fate of refugees to the wanderings of Odysseus.

On one level, it’s an inappropriate comparison as refugees are trying to flee their homeland whereas Odysseus is driven by the desire, indeed, the compulsion, to return home. But Farr skilfully draws parallels with the discomforts that he faces in the various places he visits and the travails faced by the refugees.

He adds a few touches of his own: the episode with the Phaecians that takes up a big chunk of the poem is expanded. Farr imagines Odysseus falling into the clutches of an immigration authority, a logical extension of their suspicion of strangers. The country is unnamed, but it doesn't take too much of a leap of imagination to conjure up a vision of a modern-day Britain dealing with a modern-day Odysseus...

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Latest User Review

86.130.201.131) - 3 March 2006:

A fresh and very inventive telling of an old old story. The staging is captivating (making ther lyric proscenium seem like a studio space) and the performances uniformly good, with great use of music. ...

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