The Odyssey: Book IV in Ancient Greek | September 13-15, 2024

Theaterlab Presents Joseph Medeiros in The Odyssey book 4: a queen in waiting as part of The Gallery Series. Joseph is memorizing Homer’s Odyssey in the original Ancient Greek and creating solo performances of individual books with the ultimate aim of performing the entire poem as a large-scale, 24-hour solo performance. He presents the text without simultaneous English translation, encouraging the audience to trust their intuition and fall into the language beyond its literal meaning. He does the first book of the poem in his living room for three people sitting on his couch. For book 2, he rides a box of props on the back of his bike out to perform al fresco in Central Park. He has recently begun performing book 3 in other people’s living rooms. The overall project strives to create idiosyncratic and unexpected renderings of a well-known (and well-worn) text in order to invite individuals to have fresh, and hopefully personal, encounters with it. 

In this residency, Joseph presents Book 4, featuring the appearance of Helen of Troy, the capture of the shape-shifting sea god Proteus, and the mournful prayer of Penelope. In January 2025, Theaterlab  will also present the first four books as one 5-hour performance..