The Odyssey

adapted and performed by Charlie Bethel

Originally Produced: March 21 – April 3, 2014 at Open Eye Theatre

Streaming Online: December 1 – 31, 2020; Watch Party December 18 at 7:30pm

Shipwrecks, sirens, and mythical goddesses meet magic, death, and revenge. Acclaimed solo artist Charlie Bethel (Beowulf, Gilgamesh) re-imagines Homer’s famous tale in a faithful yet accessible performance. Voyage across land and sea, through the underworld, and to the top of Mt. Olympus as Odysseus seeks his homeland and the arms of his loving wife. Don’t miss this thrilling epic adventure, suitable for most audiences.

Reviews

“Charlie Bethel’s one-man take is a splendid journey. Twin Cities audiences haven’t had the opportunity to see the work of Charlie Bethel for a half-dozen years. His dazzling new one-man version of “The Odyssey,” hosted by Walking Shadow Theatre Company, demonstrates it was well worth the wait.

Bethel was a favorite of Minnesota Fringe Festivals past with his accessible takes on such toothsome texts as “Beowulf” or “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” He returns to town with no less weighty a project: Homer’s epic Greek poem about Odysseus’ tortured, 10-year trip home after the Trojan War. It’s a journey punctuated by encounters with Cyclopses and sirens, nymphs and goddesses and as much adversity as the denizens of Olympus can dish out. If it all sounds dry and dreary and academic… well, you’ve clearly never seen one of Bethel’s shows. Yes, his adaptation has its share of high-blown-language, and yes, his delivery is somewhat affected, luxuriating in the text and elongating the end consonants of words. But, dressed in street clothes and working on a set cluttered with stacks of books and old papers, a ladder, a sword and other germane and extraneous bits of junk, he spins the tale easily and compellingly. While the story remains firmly rooted in antiquity, Bethel judiciously peppers his telling with enough contemporary idiom to aid the script’s comprehensibility and its velocity…

The story’s end finds Odysseus at long last back in Ithaca, the character and the actor portraying him both clearly spent from the experience. But we’re reluctant to let them go, for their journey was truly a shared one: salty and sweet, funny and tragic, altogether human and altogether splendid.”
– Dominic Papatola, Pioneer Press

“In this storytelling show based on Homer’s tale of Odysseus, two prodigious Twin Cities talents merge at the Open Eye Theatre. One is Walking Shadow, who rep out as having something like a Midas touch. They’re not afraid to develop a rough, new playwright along with their own works and more experienced writers, and their track record pretty much guarantees that the show will be good no matter what.

The other talent is Charlie Bethel, an old school Fringe favorite whose storytelling stamina is practically unrivaled. Bethel brings a flair for the stage and a keen mix of improv and light-minded buffoonery to an otherwise dark and droning piece, and he does this no matter the story he tells, wherever he plays. The following he’s earned, plus that of Walking Shadow, is enough to draw a large, enthusiastic crowd to every show…

At the end of the day, the Odyssey is nothing new. It’s Homer’s epic, and patrons familiar with the story will have a pretty good idea of what to expect plotwise. Bethel freshens the tale with insights and his own emphases, though, and keeps it lively and engaging from start to finish. It’s a long show, clocking in at about two hours and forty minutes (including a 15 minute intermission) but that didn’t seem to bother the all-ages crowd who filled the house – from where I sat, I counted six empty seats – especially the kids. One might expect them to get bored, but they never left the edges of their seats.”
– Rob Callahan, VitaMN

Production Team