Epic Delight

A wide-open theater space makes for a thrilling Odyssey

by Mark Cofta

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Curio Theatre's permanent home in the cavernous sanctuary of West Philly's Calvary Center for Culture and Community isn't quite ready for most plays, but its rustic, wide-open, not-quite-church/not-yet-theater quality is a perfect fit for Jared Reed's stirring adaptation of The Odyssey.

Paul Kuhn has built a huge platform for future productions, but no curtains or walls yet. For this epic tale of Odysseus' 10-year voyage home to wife Penelope and son Telemachus after a decade spent sacking Troy, Kuhn provides a stylish podium for three performers and musical instruments, with candles spread all over the vast open space. Lit entirely by flame, this Odyssey flickers with ancient light.

We don't know much about Homer except that he wrote two epics, The Iliad (which Reed and Kuhn also perform, to great acclaim) and The Odyssey, for which they add Curio regular Jennifer Summerfield.

The Odyssey — "The journey of a man, midway through his life, who has lost his way" — recounts Odysseus' struggles with gods and monsters on his long journey home to Penelope, who's spent 20 years fending off a thuggish horde of suitors. Though often violent, Reed's adaptation is most eloquent and inspiring about war's horrors, the importance of integrity and nobility, and the unbreakable ties of love and family.

The performers slide effortlessly from narration to characters, enacting a riveting, tightly focused 95-minute tale with genuine emotion — even while accompanying themselves with chimes, rain sticks, tuning forks, guitar, autoharp, rattles and drums, and rarely facing one another. This could be a radio play, but we'd miss the subtle ways they lean into and back from their candles to capture illumination like ancient fireside storytellers, using their hands' graceful motions and careful vocal modulation, using the sanctuary's reverent echo to maximum effect.

Though they never step from their stations — Reed, Kuhn and Summerfield, dressed in simple earth tones, are in place playing before the audience enters — director Rowen Haigh's staging is strikingly beautiful, most importantly because it never distracts from their clear, honest portrayal of dozens of clearly delineated characters.

The Odyssey is a vivid reminder of theater's ability to make the past present. I have never been so moved sitting in a pew.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

The Odyssey Through March 15, Curio Theatre Co., Calvary Center for Culture and Community, 4740 Baltimore Ave.,215-525-1350, curiotheatre.org.