The Odyssey: An Artist Residency with Louis & Dan and the Invisible Band

Like any Greek epic, ours opens with a proem (“Proem”), an invocation to the Muse to tell the tale of proud, clever Odysseus and his ill-fated journey home.

The curtain rises on a crew of Greek sailors readying their ship to return to Ithaca after 10 long years at war with the Trojans. Among them is the disguised Goddess of Wisdom Athena, who serves both as our narrator and as Odysseus’s capricious protector. As the crew introduce themselves and their journey to come, we also meet Odysseus himself and Penelope, Odysseus’s long-suffering wife, who is fending off suitors back in Ithaca (“Coming Home”).

Odysseus and his crew set off, assuming smooth sailing. But adventure and calamity are in store. Poseidon kicks up a storm, making it impossible to sail anywhere. Odysseus and his crew row to the island of the Lotus Eaters (“Row On”), where everyone is as happy as can be. The Lotus Eaters entice the crew with their stupor-inducing fruit (“Lost”). The crew jump at the offer and have soon forgotten about their journey home. Appalled, Odysseus knocks the lotus fruit out of their hands and reminds them of all they’ve fought for (“Remember”).

Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Penelepe has her own troubles (“Old Fashioned Hospitality”). With doubts growing by the day that Odysseus will ever return, the host of suitors who are hoping to win Penelope’s hand pressure her. Penelope isn’t remotely interested, and not just because the suitors are terrible guests. As clever as her husband, Penelope hatches a plan to delay the suitors:  she will host a song competition, the winner of which will win Penelope’s hand (“Intro to the Song Competition”). The first entry - a barbershop number - settles nothing (“Suitors’ Barbershop”).

Lost on the other side of the Aegean Sea, after many days of hard rowing (“Row On Reprise”), Odysseus and his crew come upon an island filled with food and fresh water and hope for hospitality (“Old Fashioned Hospitality Reprise”). Little do they know that it’s the island of the Cyclops, Polyphemus, who traps them in his cave and begins eating the crew one by one. Escape seems impossible until wily Odysseus devises a plan to get past Polyphemus and flee back to the ship (“My Eye”). But a new storm is brewing, literally: Polyphemus is Poseidon’s son, and Poseidon blows Odysseus and his crew off course once again.

They eventually land on Aeolus’s island. He is the Lord of the Winds and he gifts the crew a bag of all the winds except for one – the west wind – which will blow them back to Ithaca in no time. After ten days of sailing (“West Wind Waltz”), with Ithaca in sight, the suspicious crew opens the bag, allowing the North, South, and East winds to blow with fury. As a result the ship is once again blown far away from Ithaca and the crew is lost once again somewhere on the Aegean sea.

Starting to feel hopeless, Odysseus sings of his love to Penelope. Back in Ithaca, Penelope is thinking of Odysseus at the exact same time (what are the odds?). They sing a song that is uniquely theirs, rekindling their connection despite the great distance separating them (“Nobody Else Will Sing Our Song”). The suitors impose on Penelope to listen to their song - the next entry in the song competition (“Like a Book”).

A demoralized crew and Odysseus finally land on what appears to be a hospitable island, Aeaea, with everything they need to resupply. The crew plunders the land, stripping it of every useful resource. Mistake! For this is the island of the Goddess Circe and her nature-loving nymphs. Nearby they are performing their daily ritual of thanksgiving for all that the island and the Gods provide them, which Odysseus spies from afar (“This Land”).  Before he can approach to seek their hospitality, the messenger god Hermes stops him to offer advice and a special herb that may come in handy.

When Circe and her nymphs come upon Odysseus’s crew ravaging, they’re furious. Feigning hospitality, Circe and the nymphs offer a drink to the crew, which promptly turns them into pigs (“Mercy Circe”). Odysseus arrives just too late, but armed with Hermes’s herb, tricks Circe into promising to transform them back into humans. It’ll take a while, though. In the meantime, it turns out that some of the crew love their new lot in life (“Happy as a Pig).”

In the end, Circe sends Odysseus and his crew on their way with a recommendation: he must visit the blind prophet Tiresias in the underworld. Indeed, Tiresias has extensive but comically cryptic advice for how Odysseus and what remains of his crew can navigate the trials ahead (“Tiresias Jaunty Advice Song”).

First, the ship must pass the famed Sirens. Odysseus remembers Tiresias’s words and stuffs beeswax in the crew’s ears so that they won’t be tempted by the Sirens’ song. But ever bold and foolish, Odysseus decides that he wants to be the only person to hear the Sirens’ songs and live to tell the tale. He has his crew tie him to the mast and agree not to stop rowing, no matter what (“Siren Song”).

Next they navigate the strait between the Scylla, the six-headed monster, and Charibdis, the sea-swallowing monster (basically a whirlpool). They make it past (“Would You Rather?”), at terrible cost.

By now Odysseus has led them on misadventure after misadventure, and the crew is mutinous. Odysseus refuses to take responsibility in a show-stopping display of hubris (“It’s Not Me”).