Dan Bain - odyssey

CREDITS

The Odyssey was produced by Noosed Octopus: Theatre, etc, and the Christchurch City Council with the generous assistance of Anthony Harper for Anthony Harper Summer Theatre 2024

DANIEL ALLAN is ODYSSEUS, POSEIDON, & OTHERS

DONNA BROOKBANKS is ATHENA, CIRCE, PENELOPE & OTHERS

MILLIE HANFORD is ZEUS, TELEMACHUS, & OTHERS

WRITTEN & DIRECTED by DAN BAIN

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT by MANDY PERRY

SET DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION by CHRIS REDDINGTON

OPERATED by ANDREW TODD

SOUND DESIGN & ORIGINAL COMPOSITION by DAN BAIN

ADDITIONAL COMPOSITION by MICHEAL BELL

JAMES SHERA and KATE TAYLOR ARE YOUR AUDIENCE AMBASSADORS

SYNOPSIS

First up, if you don't know anything about this - don't panic. In adapting The Odyssey we've done our best to make it as accessible and clear as possible. You shouldn't need a classics degree to make sense of what's going on.

If you do we've messed up... badly.

Here's what might be helpful to know so if you have to head to the bathroom - it's on the other side of the playground, you can't miss it - or, you turned up late, or the sun was just very nice and you drifted off and you end up not seeing a chunk of the show, here's the cheat sheet of what's happening.

Odysseus is the guy who comes up with the idea of building a wooden horse at the battle of Troy to sneak some soldiers in past the gates. Yeah! That wooden horse. He's the guy!

Also, this is Ancient Greece, so the Gods are 1) plentiful, and 2) always meddling in people's business. Poseidon, the god of the sea, gets pretty upset at Odysseus and curses him, saying he'll never make it home from The Battle of Troy to his home in Ithaca.

The rest of our time is Odysseus trying to make it home! We've cut a few things from the original (sorry fans of the Island of Lotus Eaters) and we've taken some liberties here and there with some sequences. Still, we've also tried our best to do as much of the Odyssey as we can with only 90 minutes (plus a fifteen-minute interval for refreshments) and three actors.

That includes encounters with... The Cyclops, Aeolus Lord of Winds, The Laestrogonians, Circe the Witch, The Sirens, The Scylla, Charybdis, The Sacred Cattle of Helios, The Blind Bard Demodocus, Zeus, Athena, Poseidon and a lot of bad weather until he finally makes it home to find that his wife has been fending off 108 suitors for the last 10 years. And now he has to defeat them all in battle.

All 108 of them.

Oh, and we also turned it into a comedy.

Enjoy!

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

In 2021 I produced and directed Around the World in 80 Days for Summer Theatre. It went rather well, but I learned some things from that experience that, should I do it again, I really wanted to do differently.

I thought it should be funnier, and also it should maybe be even more unlikely. I liked 80 Days because it seemed like a story that was impossible to do well with only three people. I like theatre as a feat. Like, not just telling a fun story, but doing a backflip at the same time as telling the story. That’s fun, right?

So I asked myself, what would be impossible to do with three people? And I decided on The Odyssey.

"Haha. What a trick it will be," I chuckled to myself. I wrote the script. I tested it on a live audience at Little Andromeda as part of their script development season, and everything seemed good. Onwards!

And then that tricksy Ancient Greek poet started getting at me. Making things difficult.

“This monster has 6 heads. You better show them all!”

“Everyone knows the Cyclops, that better be good! Also, you know he’s a giant right? Better be big.”

“How are you going to put all the storms in the world in a bag?”

In my self-satisfaction around reducing the cast size, I had assumed that would also lower the amount of STUFF we would need.

Dear reader, it did not.

The Odyssey is EPIC. And that means that we have had to build and source an extraordinary amount of THINGS to tell the story.

But we had to. It’s The Odyssey. You can’t hand-wave things away. You can’t skip things because they’re hard.

This is the biggest, and I think most difficult project I have ever led.

That feels appropriate. If it wasn’t, I think we would be short-changing the material.

The Odyssey is the story of a man who wants to go home. To rest. To be with his family. But the world, his occupation, and circumstance conspire against this continuously.

In putting The Odyssey together for summer theatre, I can empathise with this more and more.

Maybe we can all take a little something from this as we head into 2024.

I hope you have a lovely evening, laugh at the jokes, and enjoy the backflip that is our production of The Odyssey.

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CAST

DANIEL ALLAN - ODYSSEUS, POSEIDON, & ANTINOUS

Daniel is an actor, director, and teacher of drama. He was a member of the Court Jesters improvisation troupe between 2003 and 2009 and trained with Zen Zen Zo physical theatre company in 2009.

He has acted in shows for The Court Theatre, NZ Playhouse, Fortune Theatre, and multiple Nelson-based companies, including his own theatre company Body in Space. Daniel has been involved in nine large-scale outdoor productions in the last decade including the 2021 Summertimes show Around the World in 80 Days.

DONNA BROOKBANKS - ATHENA, CIRCE, PENELOPE, & OTHERS

Donna is an actor, comedian, improviser, voice artist, and writer. She is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. She has been a Billy T nominee twice with The NZ International Comedy Festival and has written 3 solo comedy shows. Her television credits include 7 Days, Mean Mums, Raised by Refugees, Creamerie, and Funny Girls and she has written for and appeared on Shortland Street, Jono and Ben, and The Project.

Donna has provided the voice for popular TVNZ cartoons Night Eyes and Tu Meke Space. Donna is a proud member of Equity New Zealand and co-founder of the cult hit Auckland improv show, Snort.

MILLIE HANFORD - ZEUS, AEOLUS, TELEMACHUS, & OTHERS

Millie is an actor, improviser, writer, and comedian from Ōtautahi Christchurch. She is a regular performer at The Court Theatre, appearing in a range of kids' shows, the late-night comedy show Scared Scriptless, and their Anthony Harper Summertimes seasons.

A 2022 Actors’ Program graduate, Millie now resides in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her recent credits include the TAPAC 2023 kids show season, and the new sketch comedy show New York Architecture and a Fish at the Classic Comedy Club.

Millie was proud to launch and lead the Court Jesters Youth Company in 2021, which is in its third successful year supplying improvisation training for youth aged 16-22.

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CREW

HOMER - LEGENDARY ANCIENT GREEK POET

Homer was a Greek poet born c. 8th century BC who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature.

The question of by whom, when, where, and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed continues to be debated. Scholars remain divided as to whether the two works are the product of a single author.

Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity; the most widespread account was that he was a blind bard from Ionia. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.

DAN BAIN - WRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, PROPS, SOUND DESIGNER

Dan has been a theatre director, playwright, improvisor, street performer, actor, motivational speaker, and comedian since graduating from clown school in 2001. He co-created cult improv sensations Perfuct Storm and Improv Seduction and is the creator of the bafflingly popular sleep-aid podcast Dan Bain’s Sleepy Time Mumbles. As a standup his comedy reflects his unique perspective and cheerful vulgarity, all filtered through his desperate attempts to appear clever.

Dan's work as a writer for theatre includes Ivy Black: Axe Murder Girl, and The Light in the Sky, the silent children's shows A Paintbox of Clowns, Why Are My Parents So Boring? and Cat Vs. Dog; the Young and Hungry commissions Gameplan and Uncle Minotaur; the comedy Stag Weekend (with Brendon Bennetts); high school musical The Invisibles (with Luke Di Somma), and his multiple versions of A Christmas Carol. He most recently adapted Homer’s The Odyssey for three comedy actors.

His book on live performance technique These Are NOT the Rules of Improvisation is available from the Playmarket bookshop and online at perfuct.co.nz

Dan was Associate Director of The Court Theatre from 2017 - 2020 and Artistic Director of The Court Jesters from 2014 - 2020. He is currently the Artistic Director of Little Andromeda.

MANDY PERRY - PRODUCTION MANAGER

Mandy worked for The Court Theatre for over 30 years and has been involved with over 120 productions as either Stage Manager or Production Manager. Highlights include August: Osage County; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare; She Stoops to Conquer; Great Expectations; The Sound of Music; Mary Poppins; Stones in his Pockets and When the Rain Stops Falling as well as helping to create a new home for The Court at The Shed and being a regular Stage Manager for Scared Scriptless for over 25 years.

Mandy has worked with many other companies including Pacific Underground, The Christchurch Arts Festival, The World Buskers Festival, NASDA, Two Productions, NZ Opera, Showbiz Christchurch, Cubbin Theatre Company, Rollicking Entertainment, Noosed Octopus, and Christchurch City Choir. Some show highlights include Tell Me on a Sunday; Hairspray and the NZ tour of Maui: One Man against the Gods.

Mandy helps coordinate the Theatrefest one-act play competition, works freelance for a number of Christchurch arts organisations, and is a MUSOC life member.

CHRIS REDDINGTON - SET DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Chris works as a freelance sculptor, set designer and builder, composer, and musician.

His recent work integrates sculpture and music to create sonic objects and concert performances that utilise found materials. His stage designs are also interested in the synthesis of aural and visual rhythms, colours, and energies.

He was employed at the University of Canterbury Theatre and Film Department (2008 -2013) as technical director and designer where he worked with set design, prop construction, puppet making, music direction, and musical theatre performance.

Currently, he designs for musical productions, dramatic productions, and children's productions for various theatre companies.

ANDREW TODD - OPERATOR

Andrew has been working in various creative fields since 2006, as an improviser, actor, writer, director, animator, composer, and designer. He has worked with the Court Theatre, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the New Zealand Film Commission, Fantasia Film Festival, VICE, and more.

His first feature film, Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws is available now; he has multiple other projects in various stages of development.

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THANK YOU

Theatre is the great collaborative art form. Our sincerest thanks and heartfelt acknowledgments to our supporters and suppliers:

CANTERBURY CHILDREN'S THEATRE

ROYAL WOLF

THE COURT THEATRE

Laura Borrowdale

Michael Bell