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Poet is here to talk about that other rage, the kind we’ve seen a lot lately, which is why this story will never be outdated.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