Ruth Leon recommends…The Odyssey – Jermyn St Theatre

Ruth Leon recommends…The Odyssey – Jermyn St Theatre

Ruth Leon recommends

norman lebrecht

July 31, 2021

The Odyssey – Jermyn St Theatre
Click here for tickets

Each segment is separately charged.
 £15 per segment, £20 more than one viewer. Aug 1
Now, just in case you have nothing to do on Sunday, Jermyn Street Theatre has the answer. And if, like me, you’re obsessed by Ancient Greece, in myth or fact, Homer, translated by Emily Wilson and directed by Jermyn Street’s Artistic Director Tom Littler, will entertain you for the entire day.

The play will be presented in six chunks, starting at 9.30am.
They are:
9.30am: The Boy and the Goddess
12.30pm: The Songs of a Poet
2.45pm: The Winds and the Witch
5.30pm: Father and Son
7.45pm: The Queen and the Beggar
10.00pm: The Olive Tree Bed

Some pretty fancy actors will be taking part. James Purefoy stars as Odysseus, the Greek hero whose ten-year journey home from Troy is the heart of Homer’s epic poem. Purefoy is joined by Susannah Harker as his wife Penelope, Chirag Benedict Lobo as his son Telemachus, renowned Shakespearean actor Michael Pennington as his father Laertes, Clare Perkins as Athena, the goddess who guides his journey, and Marion Bailey as his devoted nurse Eurycleia. The ensemble cast is full of Jermyn Street regulars including Jim Findley, Sam Crerar, David Sturzaker and Robert Mountford.

Each of the six parts features a guest narrator: Dona Croll narrates The Boy and the Goddess at 9.30am; Dame Janet Suzman leads The Songs of a Poet at 12.30pm; Lisa Dwan plays Circe in The Winds and the Witch at 2.45pm; Miranda Raison narrates Father and Son at 5.30pm; Hattie Morahan narrates The Queen and the Beggar at 7.30pm; and Rachel Pickup closes the story with The Olive Tree Bed at 10pm.

Read more here

Comments

  • V.Lind says:

    Ruth Leon’s recommendations get more and more expensive. (Yes, I know she threw in a free one the other day…).

    It’s a big ask for watching on a laptop.

  • Patricia says:

    Janet Suzman was in a “Morse.” She played one of a trio of killers.

    • V.Lind says:

      She was also in Nicholas and Alexandra (as the latter). Miranda Raison was in Spooks. Hattie Morahan was in Sense and Sensibility and The Peacock Spring and a Lewis (as was Raison, who played a killer).

      Your point?

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