Beltane Early Growth Moon
Once in a while. Once in a very great while. Tonight was one of the times. An Iliad, a one person, Stephen Yoakam, long time Guthrie actor, show. This was a play that distilled the Iliad’s core story, Achilles’ rage and its consequences, especially the death of Patroclus and Achilles killing of Hecto and Hector’s humiliation, then spun the story into contemporary cloth, going back and forth between the age of heroes and age of road rage.
In fact, the play compares Achilles’ rage to road rage, a visceral always with us ultimate anger that can transform men into killers.
And the story line with its compelling contemporary moments are good, but Yoakam was better. He gave these words flesh. In a bravura performance extending almost two hours Yoakam never leaves the stage, barely pauses in his dialogue with nothing but stagecraft to help him shift scenes, characters, times. His body language and use of his arms were a masters class in non-verbal acting.
This was in the Dowling Studio, the replacement for the old Guthrie lab theater where Kate and I saw several good performances. The Dowling space is even more intimate, fewer seats and closer to the stage.
Here though is what put this whole evening over the top. It’s Memorial Day weekend. In the age of heroes the hope of immortality lay in the words of the poet. The Iliad and the Odyssey are both Memorial Day poems for ancient warriors and their stories. Both give testimony to the gritty horrors of war, describing with often gruesome detail, say, a spear entering below the jaw and piercing through the soft palate into the brain and to the remarkable men who lived and died in these wars.
