The Odyssey at the Unicorn Theatre – review
The Odyssey without Odysseus. It’s an ambitious concept, but one that ultimately proves inspired in the Unicorn’s new spin on the Homeric saga – which is currently a staple of the primary curriculum.
Nina Segal’s musical adaptation, directed by Jennifer Tang, shifts the spotlight to Odysseus’s young son Telemachus (Shaka Kalokoh), who after a decade waiting patiently for his father’s return, has decided to set out in search (in this regard the opening echoes that of the original). His attentive, soul-singing mother Penelope (Cash Holland) makes sure he takes a backpack of useful items, as well as two muses as travelling companions (Cerys Burton and Kimmy Edwards).
So son duly follows in his famous father’s footsteps, sailing (surprisingly quickly) to Troy before tracing his way through a series of perilous pit-stops, from the Cyclops to Circe – which are helpfully surtitled as we go along. All are conjured by the four-strong cast on designer Rosie Elnile’s spare stage, which features a house, a boat, and a stack of stones. It all has a joyous, ‘playing with the dressing up box’ vibe that chimes with the young audience, who gleefully get involved when invited to advise Telemachus on his decision-making (the question of whether he should eat a cake temporarily turned the auditorium into the House of Commons).
The snag with any adaptation of The Odyssey is that it is, by its nature, deeply episodic, and Segal can only do so much to mitigate this. But by following Telemachus, we do at least get an element of surprise, and his encounters with the sirens (who wear Sia-like wigs) or Tiresias in the Underworld (attached to a drip and sporting an NHS gown), have echoes of those in the original story while also foregrounding both Penelope’s influence and the issue of absent fathers. It becomes as much a coming-of-age story as one of coming home.
Naomi Hammerton’s 60s-style compositions add vibrancy, with songs ranging from doo-wop harmonies to Elvis-style croons, and the cast prove a quartet of triple threats, singing and dancing (to Chi-San Howard’s pop-tastic choreography) with aplomb. Although the company is on the thin side numbers-wise, including just a solitary musician (Pat Murdoch), it’s packed with talent. And the technical elements are top-notch, particularly Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting that spans Caribbean colour washes (for Calypso, natch) to an ominously gloomy Underworld.
The Unicorn has form when it comes to innovative versions of staple classics, and it’s always a relief as a parent to see how engaging they make them. My ten year-old, something of a Greek myth geek, was transfixed and certainly didn’t seem perturbed by the absence of the story’s main protagonist. Which just goes to prove the brilliance of the central idea of this version for young audiences; this is The Odyssey as seen through the eyes of the saga’s oft-forgotten child.
