Actor Denis O’Hare and director Lisa Peterson telescope Homer’s great poem about the Trojan War into an intimate solo show illuminating both the heroism and the horror of warfare.

Set in a contemporary milieu, the one-man performance stars an ageless Greek singer and poet. The script is rendered in contemporary vernacular language with occasional snatches of verse and even a few bellowed lines in Homer’s original Greek, and is accompanied by Mark Bennett's beautiful score for solo upright bass.

The play’s sole narrator, a battered-looking character who claims to have been recounting the yarn throughout the ages, combines the reverence and mystery of ancient Greek mythology with the dynamic urban rhythms of contemporary life.

O’Hare describes his character as “a ‘living book’ sitting on the shelf, and either he’s being pulled down off the shelf by willing participants or he’s willing himself off the shelf to fall open in a time when the culture needs him.”

This event is part of our Civil War to Civil Rights: The Well-Being of a Nation series.