(Melena Ryzik’s article appeared 8/28 in The New York Times.)
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of Hermes the winged messenger, with eyes like binoculars. Of wise old Robert Moses, his head a literal globe, and of Typhoid Mary, a health threat in a skirt made of spoons.
Odysseus has, finally, found his way to Queens, and — journeying through storm surge and eons of urban grit — has been transformed a bit in the process. On Monday evening “The Odyssey” will be restaged through the lens of New York City history, using costumed characters and giant puppets, in a site-specific work commissioned for Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. Visitors will play the part of weary Greek travelers, traversing the park to see seven “processionals” enacting stories from Homer’s epic poem.