‘An Iliad’ journeys uncomfortably to modern times at Stage West

An Iliad, the one-man (and one-cellist) show that opened Saturday in the Studio at Stage West, is a modernized retelling of Homer’s epic tale of battles and wars fought by the gods and heroes of the ancient Greeks.

Stage West artistic director Jim Covault is our guide in this stroll through Homer’s chronicle of carnage and gore, much of which was caused by a woman with a face that could send ships to sea.

But there is a great deal more to this story than Helen and Paris and Achilles, and some of the other names you might know, even if you know as little about the original work as I do. And this text by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare tries to tell as much of it as possible in a draining, 90-minute monologue.

Covault, under the direction of Emily Scott Banks, does a fine job of carrying the crushing weight of the script. Attired in modern dress, he moves about a stage littered with totally random set pieces (a suitcase, some army boots, a statue, a couple of crates, etc.) and passionately evokes the times of Homer’s tales. There are just a few efforts to link the story he tells to our own times, such as when the Greek warriors waiting on warships are likened to American boys shipping out to one of the 20th century’s two world wars.

It is, obviously, a compelling narrative — if you can follow it. The story has more Greek names than an Athens phone book and, since the gods are also at play here, things can change abruptly.

The only thing marring the staging in this production is an overused sound effect. Distant thunder rumbles incessantly for most of the show. It is just loud enough to be a distraction and it seems it is never going to stop.

Cellist Jordan Jones Cleaver is positioned in an alcove above the stage, where she tosses in a few notes and phrases here and there to accent Covault’s delivery. But her efforts neither help nor hurt the show, at least in part because it is sometimes hard to sort out what she is doing through the annoying thunder.

So this is a show that you have to meet more than halfway. In that sense, it is a great choice for Stage West’s smaller studio space. It showcases a serious work with some meat on its bones that may not be to everyone’s taste.

But those who want to get back to the basics of storytelling and drama have the option of savoring the challenges of this classically based work.

It might make you wish you had paid more attention to this stuff when it was force-fed to you in college.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 1:05 PM with the headline "‘An Iliad’ journeys uncomfortably to modern times at Stage West."