Did you find the study of Greek classics in high school confusing and stressful?
I thought so.
In An Iliad, an Obie Award-winning, one-actor play based on Homer’s The Iliad, actor Alec Beard is a masterful storyteller who makes this Greek classic come vividly alive and viscerally relevant with the help of his storytelling sidekicks – music and lighting.
Playwrights Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson retell Homer’s epic story of Achilles and Agamemnon, who are waging war on Troy, and Hector, a Trojan prince defending his home. The Iliad’s almost encyclopedic inclusion of who, what, where, when, and why have always felt impenetrable to me. In Quill Theatre’s An Iliad, The Poet (Beard) is anachronistic time traveler, who was contemporaneously present at Troy, yet living in our present realty. His mission: to help us make sense of it all, as if he just skipped over the recent 2,800 years without missing a beat.
The compete directory of warriors and commanders? No problem, you don’t really need to know them all.
The places from which they originated? No worries, it’s just like listing the cities and states where our soldiers call home.
The story’s essence was broken down for us and artfully delivered by Beard, so ask to make history come alive and feel so viscerally relevant to our lived experience.
Beard was not the only storyteller in the play, for the haunting emotional undercurrent is on full display, thanks to cellist Chris Chorney, with score composed by Niccolo Seligmann. Not only does the score guide our feelings along, but the music is also The Poet’s muse, helping him find clarity, inspiration, and momentum at times when his 2,900-year-old brain was having a senior moment.
Lighting, by Gretta Daugtrey, is another actor in the play, hidden in plain sight. Since the play (staged at Gottwald Playhouse at Dominion Energy Center) is set in the backstage of a theater, the lighting was both part of the set and participated in an exclamation point there! An energetic clarification here! A visual depiction on the side! (Made to look) simple, yet a brilliant accompaniment to what would’ve already been an incredible production.
Overall, a big grateful standing ovation to director/artistic director James Ricks for delivering another gem to Richmond theatre-goers. Grab your teenagers and go check out this masterpiece before it closes this weekend.
An Iliad is showing at Gottwald Playhouse at Dominion Energy Center through Saturday, April 16. For showtimes and tickets, visit Quill Theatre here.
[Dave Parrish photos]
