WORDTheatre's THE ODYSSEY: Live at the London Literature Festival (Excerpt)

Hello, literature lovers.

We are Word Theater, the short story specialists, and this is our podcast.

For the past 24 years, we've been getting great authors into the room to hear great actors perform their beautifully crafted short stories.

Each week, we share a story from our vast archive of live, once-in-a-lifetime performances recorded in Los Angeles, New York, and London.

I'm your host, Cedering Fox, Ward Theatre's founder and artistic director.

Have you heard of a little movie coming out called The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan?

Well,

I was fascinated to learn that this brilliant Oscar-winning director was inspired to jump into his epic cinematic undertaking when he read the first line of Emily Wilson's remarkable translation, Tell Me About a Complicated Man.

Published in 2017, it is the first translation undertaken by a woman and it is remarkable.

We love to collaborate with other institutions and I was thrilled when Word Theater was invited to present Claire Allfree's brilliant three-hour adaptation of Wilson's translation in the fall of 2018 at Southbank Center's London Literature Festival.

The gods conspired to help me gather a phenomenal cast of actors.

Danny Cipani as Odysseus, Marion Jean-Baptiste as Penelope, plus Joseph Marcel, Luke Newberry, Ray Penthacky, Elliot Cowan, and Bellamy Young, with Mianna Buring and Nina Sosagna narrating.

Conductor Ewan Campbell assembled a phenomenal group of musicians who performed original music composed and arranged by Jonathan Sachs.

Written in the 8th century BC, Homer's epic poem recounts the tumultuous 10-year journey home of Odysseus and his men after the Trojan War.

Before you see the film, we'd like you to listen to a short and powerful excerpt from the opening of Word Theatre's production.

Joseph Marcel delivers that fabulous opening line.

Please note that Word Theatre holds the copyright to these recordings and no portion of anything you hear on Word Theatre Weekly, our short story podcast, may be reproduced without permission.

And now, the opening of The Odyssey.