By Ernest Kearney — Epics tend to be about champions, giant defeaters, kingdom conquerors, warriors of a thousand battles. But seldom do you find, as the central figure, some poor sod who gets drunk one night and falls asleep on a rooftop, only to wake up the next morning and — forgetting where he is — absent-mindedly walks off the edge; breaking his neck.
But that is the tale of Elpenor, the youngest and dopiest member of Odysseus.
You have to hand it to Elpenor though; for a twit who breaks his neck falling off a roof in Homer’s great narrative, he’s provided a good many writers with inspiration.
Archibald McLeish wrote a poem about him, James Joyce based a character on him in his Ulysses, and the French author Jean Giraudoux employed him as the main character in his humorous parody of the Greek epic Elpénor.
Now Jordan Rountree has placed Elpenor as the focus of his solo show Epic Fail.
Rountree places Elpenor in a modern context; dressed in a ghillie suit he shares the stage with an ice chest, lite beer, and electronic music.
His Elpenor doesn’t really fit into an epic narration, any more than thousands of young reservists feel they belong in this country’s great national adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rountree’s piece while highly entertaining, has a swift undercurrent of sorrow to it.
Rountree’s Elpenor is a sweet, if dim-witted soul, who seems desperate to break free of the heroic quest he’s on to return to his job at his home town’s local filling station.
One aches for him, as he seems as oblivious to his approaching doom as a deer on a darkened road, mesmerized by those bright white circles that seem to be growing bigger and bigger.
For an imaginative reworking of a classic and an intense committed performance, a GOLD MEDAL.
♦ ♦ ♦
Epic Fail
Is Playing During the Hollywood Fringe 2018 at
6322 Santa Monica Blvd.
For Show Information, Tickets and Reservations Go To
What is Hollywood Fringe 2018? Click HERE to learn more.
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