At the end of last semester, my FYS Professor Nina Papathanasopoulou asked our class if we wanted to see a play called black odyssey. I was excited because I am a huge theater lover and enjoyed the parts of my FYS that dealt more with Greek plays rather than epics like The Iliad. However, at the beginning of this semester I almost forgot about the trip, and when I got the email reminder from the professor I realized there was a small problem: I had rehearsals for the spring musical the same day and time of the play. I knew that going on the trip would mean seeing a possibly good show with my FYS classmates; however, getting back to Conn very late and missing rehearsal reigned supreme in my mind. After seeing the performance I am glad I didn’t let the cons of going stop me.
I didn’t know what to expect when I went to see the show, but assumed black odyssey was a play with an African American cast telling Homer’s Odyssey in a modern way, similar to a previous play I saw by The Classical Theatre of Harlem’s rendition of Antigone at the Marcus Garvey theater in Harlem. My assumptions were correct, but black odyssey exceeded all of my high expectations. This play had more modern costumes with hints of African print incorporated into it. It was set just after 9/11 and then fast forwarded to the present. There were also a lot of references to The Odyssey and Greek myths. For example, Poseidon, god of the sea, went in disguise in the play and used the last name “Flood.” That earned a few giggles from the audience. Halfway through the play, I realized the infamous suitors in The Odyssey weren’t in black odyssey. Instead towards the end, Poseidon goes in disguise again and his last name becomes Suitor because he sells suits. I also found this pretty funny. Finally, there was a scene when “Nela” or the Penelope character spoke to Athena in disguise. Athena was keeping her hopes up by saying that Ulysses (Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey) was still alive, yet Nela remained doubtful and said to Athena, “You have been weaving this story.” At this moment in the play I was transported back to reading The Odyssey when Penelope weaves a death shroud for her presumed dead husband Ulysses yet keeps unweaving it, because she promised her suitors that when she finished it she would remarry. Penelope had been stalling in The Odyssey. In the black odyssey the playwright, Marcus Gardley, used the word “weaving” in this instance to show how Athena had been doing the same thing — stalling for Ulysses to come back. It was the little references like these that made me appreciate the script so much. Finding them were like finding little nuggets of gold, and it made me want to meet Gardley and learn about how he came up with them.
Gadley’s reinterpretation of Ulysses was apparent both in thematic content and costume design. One particular detail that struck me was black odyssey’s choice not to portray Poseidon’s cyclops son Polyphemus as a monster but instead a man with an eye patch. In other words, in black odyssey he was an innocent civilian in war-torn Afghanistan, while in the epic he appears to be more of a villain. This change in appearance influenced how the audience perceived Ulysses in black odyssey. In The Odyssey the audience roots for Ulysses to poke out Polyphemus’ eye, but in black odyssey it almost villainizes Ulysses. The actor who plays Ulysses’ son also plays Polyphemus. When the audience sees Ulysses shooting at his “son,” they understand that his son, just like Polyphemus, who has an eyepatch and wears typical Arab clothing, can be judged based on appearance and die just because of how he looks.
Overall, I loved how black odyssey combined African-American history with Homer’s original. One striking image was when Ulysses is traveling through time and his final destination is t the time of slavery. During this scene and time period, Ulysses is being bound with chains. His son on the other side of him — representing the present time — is being handcuffed by a police officer. The detainment of Ulysses’ son, a black man, at the hands of the police just because of his appearance shows the continual legacy of racial brutality since the days of slavery. Ulysses in fact goes back in time often in black odyssey, an element that I liked, in order to find his lineage and understand his history–especially as it relates to African-American history. All-in-all, it is commendable that a piece of Greek text was used to make a statement about the African-American experience in America in an intelligent and not so blatant way. •
