What an inspired idea, devising a staging of The Odyssey with teenagers and children. Such a rich story with so many islands and one-episode characters gives everyone a chance to shine, and in between times, it's all hands on deck as an ever-morphing chorus of sailors, warriors and handmaidens.
The result is energetic, inventive and humorous. Company of Giants directors Laurel Devenie and Katy Maudlin keep up the tempo by splitting the narrative between Odysseus' journey and Penelope's and Telemachus' struggles with the suitors (ignoring the differing timeframes) and mixing up the storytelling methods.
The dysfunctional family of the gods is acid comic relief, keeping the human family apart. Hermes rides a bike and sings beautifully through a loud-hailer.
The god-human relationship becomes the god-human-animal interaction: sailors become pigs, hide among sheep and eat the Sun God's cattle. Goats act like humans.
The costumes and monsters are suggested rather than fully formed, and the organised chaos aesthetic mirrors the epic's organised chaos.
