I saw "The Odyssey: Episode 5 - The Underworld" at the National Olivier tonight, and it was MAGNIFICENT, an exquisite and moving blending of 6 professional actors and 5 communities (Stoke-on-Trent, Doncaster, Trowbridge, Sunderland and London), in a play with music that, for me, was incredibly moving, involving and a triumph of theatre for Chris Bush and Jim Fortune, who created a Public Acts (the NT's community arts programme) "Pericles" that was equally incredible on this same stage 5 years ago!
Oh, and in between, earlier this year, Chris Bush's "Standing at the Sky's Edge" was pretty incredible too, though that was with Richard Hawley rather than Jim Fortune, and the communities depicted were simulated there, rather than real, as here.
This is criminally only on for three more performances, one tomorrow and two on Monday, but if you have any desire to experience communities and professionals coming together to create profound and uplifting art (in my opinion), now's your chance.
Some spoilers follow. . .
I accept the judgement that this is a play with music based on its description on the National Theatre website, but it feels a heck of a lot like a musical to me lol. I mean, it stars musical theatre legend, Zubin Varla as a villainously sneaky Hades, musical theatre supreme diva, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as a ragingly vengeful Poseidon, musical theatre comedy maestro, Amy Booth-Steel as a comically wily Calypso, as well as a captivating, rampaging yet sensitive, lead performance of Odysseus by Sharon Duncan-Brewster. They all sing, and they all sing songs that move the plot, so isn't this a musical?
Who cares really? What matters, is that they, along with deaf actor, Emma Prendergast, beautifully singing AND signing AND acting her way through the emotional antics of an interventionist Athena, and Tarinn Callender, as Odysseus's relentlessly determined son, join together with ordinary Londoners, and representatives of the 4 communities that told the first 4 episodes of Homer's "The Odyssey," to bring Odysseus home.
Chris Bush has divided Homer's Odyssey into 5 episodes, and this is the fifth and last, and is the one Bush chose to write herself, serving as dramaturg for the first 4 episodes.
Hence, we don't get the Lotus Eaters, which only played in Stoke-on-Trent, or the story of the Cyclops, which only played in Doncaster, etc, etc.
What we do get is the final chapter of the story, in which Amy Booth-Steel wears an impish magical costume, with a toy pirate ship for a hat, and sings "Stay with me" (I'm guessing the song titles) to Duncan-Brewster's Odysseus, who she has effectively held prisoner for 7 years cos she loves her. Booth-Steel is winning and funny.
Duncan-Brewster, however, not knowing that it is Calypso manipulating her, sings an "I want" song, "Break the Curse," in which Duncan-Brewster is commanding and emotive in her intentions to free herself from endlessly bad weather and return home.
The community singers get behind Odysseus, and in their compassionate choral anthem, "Send Her Home," I found myself in tears, not only at how beautiful non-professionals can sound when their voices are joined together, not only because the communities are so diverse, with people of all ages and types, races, wheelchairs, signers, everybody that is us, joining in unison to help the protagonist out, but also because Jim Fortune has a knack for rousing melodies and Bush has a knack for lyrics that are poetic but easily understandable by all ages.
Victoria Hamilton-Barritt's Poseidon, the secondary antagonist, isn't having any of it, and in "Run Run," she fiercely and dramatically establishes story stakes we can root for and against. . .
It is in hell, or the Underworld, though, that things get profound, as Zubin Varla's primary antagonist, Hades, performs the powerhouse "Stay with Us" and connects in the song such themes as the reasons we live, who we care for, and how we feel for those who have passed away. The Underworld is a place that gives voice to the dead, after all, and that hit hard, especially with the communities representing the dead.
By the time the communities joined together for the final anthem, "Bring You Home," I was a blubbering wreck, seeing all these theatre loving communities united in their love of storytelling, and each other, and the audience, and the character of Duncan-Brewster's Odysseus.
This was such a powerful evening for me, as was Pericles 5 years ago. This may not be the pristine piece that "Standing at the Sky's Edge" is, but it's rough hues are beautiful for being rough, and I am in awe of how Chris Bush makes theatre that we can feel so powerfully a part of.
5 stars from me.
PS: Running time was 1 hour, 50 minutes, without an interval.
