An Iliad

An Iliad
By Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson. Adelaide Festival. Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre. March 4- 8, 2014.

An Iliad is a stunning and absorbing solo performance by Tony Award winner Denis O’Hare, who embodies an ageless poet retelling the ancient story and never-ending destruction of war throughout the ages. In doing so, O’Hare illuminates the heroism, the impact on families and the personal stories that fill every moment in every war.

Written by O‘Hare in partnership with Lisa Peterson, who also directs the production, An Iliad is set against the backdrop of ancient and contemporary wars, blending modern language with translated verse in a powerful lament, accompanied by a live score from superbly talented double bassist, Brian Ellingsen.

An Iliad is a Homer’s Coat Project produced in association with ArKtype/ Thomas O. Kriegsman. The production is inspired by Robert Fagles’ award-winning contemporary translation of Homer’s Iliad.

Under a range of spotlights and on a bare stage populated only by mops, brooms, buckets, plastic crates, and racks of lighting equipment, O’Hare uses only a few props; a table, one chair, a suitcase, a coat rack, a filled bottle and a shot glass.

From a gentle and amiable beginning peppered with amusing asides, O’Hare’s bravura performance builds into overwhelmingly dramatic and physical moments, peaking in a tirade when he lists the terrible wars throughout history and at times sinking into sudden, potently poignant moments of quiet.

Very early in the production, the audience is drawn into an awareness of the immense numbers of young men from Greece and Troy who left home to fight each other. O’Hare cleverly makes this real for the audience by asking us to imagine thousands of young warriors leaving a vast number of (named) cities in Australia to fight a war.

We are drawn into the horrifyingly real narrative of Achilles and Hector as they battle to the death. We feel the anguish of young men who have battled for a decade and who no longer know why they are fighting. We feel the anticipation and grief of a young widow as she watches a messenger arrive, already knowing in her heart the chilling news he brings. We grieve for the father who risks his life to bring his dead son home.

O’Hare’s ageless poet leaves us acutely aware that war is unrelentingly perennial, involving terrible and personal stories of unnecessary sacrifice, of so many young people ‘winging down to the house of Death’.

The sounds double bassist Brian Ellingsen coaxes from his instrument to add drama to the production are astounding and together with booming surround-sound effects from O’Hare’s voice, wonderfully effective.

An Iliad is tender, funny, cruel, poignant and always gut-wrenchingly graphic in its depiction of war.

Whatever you do, don’t miss this wonderful and memorable production.

Lesley Reed

Photographer: Joan Marcus

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