Skip to main content

Sleeping Trees' Odyssey

     Just the Tonic at the Caves, 16:40, every day but the 13th


      Remember the one about Odysseus? No? Well, neither do the Sleeping Trees, really. Having read the ancient classic a few years ago, this Total Theatre Award shortlisted troupe present the bits of the Odyssey that they can remember, and hope we can ignore the bits they've forgotten.
      By way of breath-taking distraction, the trio chant, dance, sing, leap around and provide their own sound-effects and inner monologues without the need of such modern things as lighting or sound techies. After all, when originally performed or recited, the Homeric classic would have been accompanied by just these kinds of wild gesticulations, enthusiastic facial expressions, and sky-high suspensions of disbelief.
     The show is the last of the troupe's Stories project, which has relied entirely on the performers, rather than props and scenery. This has become a common theme in low-budget shows, but in this case in particular it allows the audience to use their own imagination to flesh out the details- just as they would do when hearing the original or reading it in paper form.
     Having left some parts out, it is helpful to have a background knowledge of the Odyssey before seeing this production in particular. How Odysseus got from birth to inside the Trojan Horse, for example, is not really discussed, and many key details are missed out. But for those who already have knowledge of the Classics, there is nothing truly offensive here- just a nice light-hearted version of an already well-loved tale. For those of us who haven't read the book, but remember bits of the movie, plain-speaking actors and an incredibly relaxed tone make this an Odyssey far easier to digest than pretty much any other incarnation.
     Already a recipient of Fringe Guru's One To Watch award for the Fringe 2013, this is a show which, quite frankly, is brilliant, and probably far better than the original.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Calgary, Alberta

Yesterday I ran around the city a bit, trying to see as much as possible for as little as possible...      It was hard.      The walk from Sean's place in Renfrew was long but scenic. Cold and crisp, Calgary did turn out to be mostly suburb, with a pretty concentrated centre with all your usual tourist hangouts just south of the Bow river where a lot of money can be spent very easily. Like $14 for going up Calgary Tower, $9 for a student ticket to the Glenbow Museum, and all those malls! They're all interconnected, so you could probably walk from shop to shop most of the way across the city without having to see sunlight. This is probably the idea behind the Plus Fifteen, too- a heated walkway above the streets so the Calgarians don't have to freeze in winter.      The Glenbow offered your normal mix of traditional art, weird modern stuff, rooms full of the extensive and glorious history of Alberta, all 150 years of it,...
Post a Comment
Read more

You Say It Best...

(originally published by The Student )      Watch any western, any black-and-white adventure film, any rags-to-riches adaptation, and you'll realise we've seen this all before. The guy gets the girl, the evil tyrant falls and the True King rises, be it Middle Earth or the Mid-West. We've seen these scenes repeated across time and space, and we know how it goes. Without the speech, the scene still goes the same way. New film The Artist proves this, without saying a word. Aside from the picture-perfect cast and a dog which will reach cult celebrity status any day now, the film addresses the transition between '20s movies and '30s talkies, and a sparse use of sound which offers a challenge to the film-makers.      In one scene, uncharacteristically static, a pair of old friends meet and greet, swap stories, laugh- the details, irrelevant, are replaced by an emotive score and some close camera-work, all of which makes us feel no less connected to the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Edinburgh Exchanges

     I've also just jumped aboard the Edinburgh Exchanges blog, which contains snippets from students around the world on International or Erasmus exchanges. I do so hoping with all my heart that this will not entail any deadlines. http://edinburghexchanges.wordpress.com/author/jajderian/
Post a Comment
Read more