les aventures du roi odysee

questa storia anticha che ti vado raccontare
parla di Odisseo che fuggiva sopra il mare,
parla di un eroe e di tante storie belle
sotto c'era il mare, sopra: il sole, luna e stelle.

ok, before i forget......
last night Scottie and I went to "La Theatre de la Nouvelle Generation" to see ""Les aventures du roi Odysee". Yes, it was technically for kids, but that didn't prevent it from being one of the most awesome plays i've ever seen! the theater itself was really cool - really modern, with beautiful painted floors. the play was done with two actors playing a father and a son. they opened with the two of them going through a nightly routine - coming home from work/school, making dinner, bathtime, etc... but throughout the whole thing, the father tells his son the story of the adventures of odysseus and they act out all the parts, using the things onstage as their props. the guitar became queen penelope, a potted plant became the island with the enchanted flowers, a dinner plate became the cyclop's eye.... they would alternate a story scene and a transition scene; they had a large curtain of really light fabric and they moved it back and forth to divide the space. the curtain had a beautiful flow to it, and as they moved it around it would billow back and forth in a reallllly cool fashion and hide the set behind it. it was so enchanting!
my favorite part was the scene where odysseus is on circe's island, which takes place in their laundry room as the father is ironing and doing the laundry.... towards the end, the father seems to have disappeared behind the curtain and the son is investigating a red robe hanging on the laundry rack.... all of sudden, hands emerge from the robe and it comes to life!! they must have had someone dressed in black behind it using the robe like a puppet, but the effect was really cool! equally cool was a scene where there was a ghost, played by a white shirt that floated down from the laundry rack as well.... the stage was dark except for a black light, and the actor holding the shirt moved it around like a puppet. sooo cool!
in the end it was really sweet how they mixed the father-son relationship with the poseidon-odysseus rltnshp... i think the message was that poseidon had some control over odysseus while he was on the seas, but once Odysseus got back onshore he had no more influence... and the sone would eventually grow up and leave the house and find his own adventures. i can't explain it right, but it was really beautiful. plus it was hilarious. lots of physical comedy, beautiful physicality on the parts of both actors, a lovely lyrical enchanting song....... i hope that i don't forget this play and all of the lovely details. and i hope that we'll see other things that are just as good!!!