The Odyssey
Created and performed by Jennifer Johnson and John Peitso
Charlestown Working Theater
Through Feb. 28
[Tickets and more information]
The Charlestown Working Theater may be one of the most overlooked performance spaces in Boston. A weirdly beautiful space at the base of Bunker Hill, the theater is built inside what was once a 19th-century firehouse. The CWT plays host to smaller local companies like Theatre on Fire and Molasses Tank Productions, plus out-of-town fringe wanderers.
The CWT also occasionally puts up its very own work, and that's the case with The Odyssey. Yes, it is the Homeric epic you read in high school English class. And yes, it's done here by a two-person cast. Impossible, you say? Nothing's impossible when there's a rocker-mounted rowboat onstage.
The brains and muscles behind The Odyssey are Jennifer Johnson and John Peitso, two of the CWT's helmsmen (no pun intended). They created and perform in the piece; they even found the boat. In the course of the show, the two take on characters ranging from Odysseus to the Cyclops, and everyone in between.
Well, not everyone. Clocking in at less than an hour in length, this Odyssey isn't so much the full shebang as it is an arty CliffsNotes version of the epic. But really, the story of Odysseus's journeys upon the wine-dark sea is little more than a jumping-off point for a mood piece of astonishing beauty.
What makes The Odyssey so enticing? First of all, it doesn't resemble anything you've likely ever seen in a theater. Dressed in New England-y traveling clothes, Johnson and Peitso spend the whole of the piece aboard their stage-bound boat, rocking it back and forth to imitate the action of imaginary waves. It's a surprisingly convincing effect, and probably one hell of an ab workout.
With the help of a few props, some old-timey instruments (we're talking dulcimers, accordions, and jaw harps), and some moody lighting and sound effects, Johnson and Peitso evoke the excitement and the melancholy of an ocean voyage.
The Odyssey is part theater and part circus. Monologues and sea shanties rub shoulders with fire-eating and minor acrobatics. It's like watching two very imaginative, resourceful kids playing make-believe, and the end product is mesmerizing.
Though they don masks and other accoutrements to portray the likes of Circe, Hades, and the Sirens, Johnson and Peitso always return to the distance-strained bond of Odysseus and his beloved Penelope. It's this tranquil core that keeps CWT's Odyssey grounded, even as it bounds across the open waves.
What'll keep you grounded: the tickets are only $15, or $12 if you're a student.
Photo: Jennifer Johnson and John Peitso in CWT's The Odyssey.
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