My Father, Odysseus

Description

He suddenly looks different, less bent, less old, less broken, what a strange man. Is there some magic here? Is he a wizard? Old man . . . No that's not right. Telemachus' father left long ago to fight a war. Telemachus doesn't remember him. Now the man of the house, he must step up to defend his father's legacy and protect his mother from the suitors that lounge around the court. Meanwhile, the great Odysseus has been trapped by the goddess Kalypso for ten long years. Lost in his memories of past glories, he longs to return home. This timeless Greek myth has been reinvented by playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker to create a modern, rich and powerful new work about a son searching for his father and a father searching for himself that is, at the same time, an exploration of masculinity and the effects of war. My Father, Odysseus received its world premiere at the Unicorn Theatre, London, on 13 March 2016. It is ideal for young people over the age of 11.

Timberlake Wertenbaker was born in France and was Resident Writer for Shared Experience in 1983 and the Royal Court Theatre 1984-85. She is best known for her play Our Country's Good (1988), based on the novel The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally. First performed at the Royal Court in 1988, it was awarded the Laurence Olivier/BBC Award for Best New Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best New Foreign Play and was nominated for six Tony Awards. Other plays include The Love of the Nightingale (1989), Three Birds Alighting on a Field (1992), The Line (2009) and Jefferson's Garden (2015) for which she won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Play 2016.