Joshua Feinman — Voyage of Odysseus

Program Description

Greek King Odysseus (Joshua Feinman) bids farewell to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus and invites students in the audience to take a journey with him into the world of myth.

First stop: Troy, where, after a long siege, the Greek soldiers hide inside a statue of a giant horse, presented to the city as a ruse to penetrate its defenses, and win the Trojan War. On the return voyage, Odysseus stops on an island where he is captured by the cave-dwelling monster Polyphemos. He blinds the giant cyclops in order to escape and resumes his voyage home. Next, our hero encounters Circe who turn his sailors into pigs then back into men again after she falls in love with him. Odysseus sails past the sirens and resists their dangerous song, after which he battles the whirlpool, Charybdis and Poseidon, God of the Sea.

Finally, after 20 years at sea, he returns to his family. Penelope is surrounded by suitors who want to marry her, but she remains faithful to her husband despite his long absence. Odysseus, disguised as a stranger, scares the suitors away, then reveals himself and reclaims his family.