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The Adventures Of Odysseus
Each exciting story is portrayed with dramatic costumes, masks, mime, storytelling and play performance.
The plays in this series last 25 minutes and any combination can be chosen.
Eris, the goddess of strife, causes a quarrel at a wedding, which ultimately leads to the Greek king, Menelaus, declaring war on Troy.
As a baby, the Greek Achilles was dipped in the magic River Styx so that his body could not be pierced by any weapon. He was able to perform many brave deeds and to the Trojans he seemed invincible. Nevertheless, in the end, he did die and in a most unexpected way.
A Greek soldier, Philoctetes was abandoned on an island on the way to Troy. Later, then the Greeks were losing the war, it was predicted that only Philoctetes could save them. Odysseus and Diomedes were sent to fetch him. His arrival on the battlefield makes a dramatic and exciting story.
This, perhaps the most famous, story of the war is developed to include the reasons for and the consequences of the building of the horse. A vigorous and, at times, bloodthirsty story as the Greeks finally overcome the Trojans.
On the way home from Troy Odysseus puts in first at the island of Ismarus, and then
at the island of the Cyclops, where with the greatest difficulty he finally escapes
from this man-
Aiolos, the king of all the winds, gives Odysseus a gentle west wind to blow him safely back to Greece. Within sight of home, the sailors disobey Aiolos’ instructions, and are punished by the ship being blown far away to the island of the Laistrygonians, a race of monstrous cannibals.
Circe has many magical powers one of which is to change men into wild animals. She transforms Odysseus’ sailors into pigs but not Odysseus. This puts her in his power. He persuades Circe to turn the pigs back into men and they all live with Circe for many months.
Odysseus persuades Circe to allow him and his sailors to leave her island, only to meet, in separate adventures, three female monsters, whose power of life and death exceeds even Circe’s. The stories of The Sirens, Charybdis and the Scylla are dramatically acted out as Odysseus narrowly escapes death each time.
Odysseus’ sailors offend the Sun god, Hyperion, and are punished by drowning in a storm at sea. Odysseus alone survives, but, as he is swimming for his life, the sea monster Charybdis sees him and is determined to catch him in her whirlpool and watch him drown!
Odysseus manages at last to swim ashore on his beloved island of Ithaca. Disguising
himself as a beggar, he goes home to his palace -
