Theater Review: An Iliad

What is it about war that mankind likes so much? Humans have been at peace for just 268 of the past 3,400 years – eight percent of recorded history.

The Greeks and the Trojans went at it way back when, and in “An Iliad” – Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s solo take on Homer’s “Iliad” – a Poet muses on the craziness of the conflicts that brought those groups to war. 

North Coast Repertory Theatre offers Richard Baird as the Poet, in a COVID-safe taped version that ranks as the best I’ve ever seen. This version leaves out recent updating like talk about supermarket lines and road rage, but throws in other contemporary references like fighters being from Kansas, Queens, and multilingual Miami. 

The Poet is here to talk about that other rage, the kind we’ve seen a lot lately, which is why this story will never be outdated.

Rage is also one of the main causes of war, of course. And (at least in this war’s case) a woman, the gorgeous Helen, who was promised to and seduced by Paris, who dragged her off to Troy.

There’s another subplot: Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, has taken a liking to Achilles’ girl Briseus (yep, another woman), but Achilles is not about to let her go. 

Achilles is the greatest warrior who ever lived. But when Agamemnon says he’ll get Briseus somehow, Achilles goes on a sit-down strike and refuses to fight the Trojans. He’s just going to sit in his tent and wait.

Did I mention craziness?

Baird plays all these parts with superb voice and body language. He’s especially funny as Helen, and annoying as the guys who can’t wait to kill each other, or to just sit it out in the tent. 

Baird has a terrific Muse in Amanda Schaar, a fine cellist who both wrote and performs a fitting soundscape for the poet’s musings. Sometimes skittering, sometimes raging down the strings or pounding on the boards, she gives the cello its own script.

“An Iliad” offers 100 minutes of excellent theater, highly recommended. It also leaves us with a question we should all ponder (and get our representatives to do likewise): How do you ask a person to be the last to die for a losing cause?

“An Iliad” streams through January 3, 2021 at northcoastrep.org. 

Tickets $35

Film Review: Survival Skills

I’m always on the lookout for unusual films, and they don’t come much odder than Quinn Armstrong’s comedy/drama “Survival Skills.”

Presented as a recently-found ‘80s training video for new recruits to the imaginary Middletown Police Department, Stacy Keach narrates the black-and-white piece, which continues to degenerate in quality (with tracking lines and snow) as we watch.

We meet new recruit Jim Williams (Vayu O’Donnell), all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, who just wants to serve and protect his community. Jim meets his unimpressed partner Allison (Ericka Kreutz), who notes right off the bat that “I didn’t request you. In fact, I requested not-you.” But Jim is undaunted by this.

The tape is narrated by the Chief (Spencer Garrett), who is here to pass on the police protocol basics. Cops, he says, “are 89% white, make a median income of $70,000, and in 1980 they voted for Reagan.”

The lighthearted approach gets serious fast when Jim is confronted with a domestic violence case which, as the Chief notes, is “about the toughest call there is.”

Jim is serious about wanting to help, but will progressively find himself wading into deep water, where established procedures fail him and he finds himself unable to keep the emotional distance required. He begins to learn that his success will depend in no small part on an ability to see citizens more as objects than people.

This has been a strange year, and police have been in the news a lot, often in unflattering stories. Armstrong gathered much of his material from his work in domestic abuse shelters, where he saw similar conflicts between those needing help and those tasked with giving it.

“Survival Skills” is a cautionary tale worth seeing, amusing at times, sobering at others, its lessons well worth pondering.

 Opens on demand Dec. 4.