{"id":26115,"date":"2025-03-09T19:16:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T23:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=26115"},"modified":"2025-03-10T07:53:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T11:53:56","slug":"odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2025\/03\/09\/odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"Why American Repertory Theater Tells \u2018The Odyssey\u2019s Backstory With Puppets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How do you introduce the backstory of Homer\u2019s epic ancient tale \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d? How Odysseus, the legendary Greek king and the story\u2019s namesake, tried to evade service in the Trojan War by feigning insanity. How 10 years into the fighting, the cunning king brought an end to the siege of Troy by scheming up the Trojan Horse, in which the Greek soldiers hid themselves then tricked the Trojans into bringing it into their previously impregnable city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In American Repertory Theater\u2019s new interpretation of “The Odyssey,”<\/a> rewritten by Kate Hamill and directed by Shana Cooper, they summarize what happened before Odysseus begins his decade-long journey home from the war by shifting the action from the cast of 10 actors to shadow puppetry. The choice allows them to recap what came before quickly\u2014and almost as if a dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt starts as this simple, playful childlike game that [Odysseus\u2019s wife and son] Penelope and Telemachus have played through his childhood,\u201d says Kate Brehm, the show\u2019s puppetry director and designer. Over and over, mother has told her son the story of his father leaving for the war. \u201cIt became like this fairy tale that they tell each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carlo
Carlo Alban, who plays Telemachus (left), and Andrus Nichols, who plays Penelope, perform shadow puppets in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shadow puppetry usually involves puppeteers behind a curtain dancing flat cut-outs between a light and the curtain. The silhouettes come to life as their shadows are projected onto the screen. Abigail Baird is the show\u2019s lead puppeteer. In this scene, Andrus Nichols, who plays Penelope, and Carlo Alban, who plays Telemachus, go behind a screen to help perform the puppets\u2014the actors\u2019 own silhouettes joining the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A boat sails across a sea. Waves transform into the furrows of a farm field. Odysseus\u2019s sanity is tested by his baby Telemachus being taken from Penelope’s arms and laid before the plow Odysseus is driving. Odysseus can\u2019t kill his son, so he abandons his charade and goes to war. A decade of fighting. Then the Greeks construct the Trojan Horse, with its deadly secret within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kate
Kate Brehm demonstrates the shadow puppet of Odysseus plowing his fields in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took us a lot of experimentation to figure out what material is the best material,\u201d says Brehm, a Harvard teacher who has worked on puppetry for the Broadway productions of \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast,\u201d as well as with \u201cpuppetry prodigy\u201d (New York Times) Basil Twist. Most of the \u201cOdyssey\u201d puppets are laser cut out of 1\/8-inch plywood. They often used styrene for arms and heads and other moving parts, animated by plastic and wooden rods. The waves are a sheet of plastic so they can be bent to become the farm field. Sarah Nolen designed \u201cthe more complicated rods and mechanisms,\u201d Brehm says. They chose materials to be durable enough to withstand weeks of shows. The designs formed a digital kit so new pieces can be quickly laser cut if the originals break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way shadow puppets come into the show is their relationship to illusion and storytelling,\u201d Brehm says. \u201cShadows are illusions and transformative. They change and morph as you see them. That really ties into the stories we tell and the myths we make. And, for me, this show\u2019s really about making a myth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Baby
Baby Telemachus is taken from Penelope’s arms in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This version of \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d ART Artistic Director Diane Paulus explained right before the opening night performance, aims to be more feminist by foregrounding the experiences of the female characters and to reframe Odysseus\u2019s journey as a traumatized war veteran\u2019s physical and emotional struggle to return home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shadow puppetry was pitched as an option during a movement workshop in fall 2023. \u201cWe thought really big and wide about how shadows could invade the entire production,\u201d Brehm says. The creeping shadows could reflect how Odysseus was haunted by what he did in the war. The idea, Brehm says, became more embodied by the acting, light and sound, but traces of this idea remain in the puppetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such as when the performance uses shadows and puppetry later in the show to bring the giant cyclops to life or recount a massacre Odysseus took part in during the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPuppetry as a medium has this inherent distance in it,\u201d Brehm says. \u201cThere\u2019s this distance between reality and illusion for the audience \u2026 which makes it a little bit easier to try to reckon with how awful it is. Because it\u2019s not happening in front of them. But it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d<\/a> at American Repertory Theater\u2019s Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, Feb. 11 to March 16, 2025. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2025 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kate
Kate Brehm demonstrates shadow puppets used in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kate
Kate Brehm demonstrates a shadow puppet of Odysseus in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kate
Kate Brehm demonstrates shadow puppets used in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A shadow puppet of the cyclops’s giant eye looms over Odysseus (played by Wayne T. Carr) in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The shadow of the cyclops looms over Odysseus and his crew in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kate
Kate Brehm demonstrates shadow puppets used in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Baby
Baby Telemachus is taken from Penelope’s arms in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kate
Kate Brehm demonstrates shadow puppets used in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Shadow
Shadow puppets in American Repertory Theater\u2019s performance of \u201cThe Odyssey.” (photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you introduce the backstory of Homer\u2019s epic ancient tale \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d? How Odysseus, the legendary Greek king and the story\u2019s namesake, tried to evade service in the Trojan War by feigning insanity. How 10 years into the fighting, the cunning king brought an end to the siege of Troy by scheming up the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,110],"tags":[455,525,1309],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26115"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26153,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26115\/revisions\/26153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}