Naples theater's 'Iliad' a different odyssey from classic

Note to high school honors students: You will not get an easy Cliff Notes version of Homer's classic when Gulfshore Playhouse opens "An Iliad" this week. You will get the distillation to its most precious nugget of truth, however: That war is a bloody zero-sum game, often the territory of narcissists and true believers.

And you'll get it that truth in a gripping way, with Jeffrey Binder, the theater's associate artistic director, turning himself into at least five characters, including Helen of Troy, as he re-tells its critical narrative. This is not a Greek "Greater Tuna," with each character homelier than the next. As The Poet, a nameless figure who is consumed with explaining the story, Binder must evolve into personalities that have kept its fires ablaze as great literature for something approaching 28 centuries. 

He is the entire show. Even the original at the New York Theatre Workshop brought in a bass player as occasional musical counterpoint, doubling as the poet's muse. But under the direction of Kristen Coury, founder and producing artistic director of the Playhouse, lights and sound effects are Binder's only foils. 

He's fine with that. No, he's ecstatic with it. 

"It's just a gift for an actor to be able to dive into the sense of this kind of piece," he said the week before its Oct. 20 opening. "You tell this beautiful tale and you have to use all of the tools in your toolbox to make the story come alive. To make it exciting. To make it funny. To make it heartbreaking — and suspenseful."

It's not surprising that Binder has been leaning into its production. He loves chameleon roles such as the four-character change-athon he mastered in "The Mystery of Irma Vep."  To add to the attraction, Binder was a fan of both "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," and read the Robert Fagles translation, considered most friendly to the contemporary English-speaking mind. It was from Fagles' edition that Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare kneaded their 100-minute, one-actor play, "An Iliad." 

"There's a lot of framing of the narrative in a modern way, so people will go 'Oh, that's what it's about.' There's a little scene between people who are in love, there are little scenes between two people who are fighting. He's (The Poet) just trying to explain it for a modern audience in a way that is immediate, funny and sometimes tragic. 

"It's all over the place — in a good way."

The play is fairly young, having premiered in 2012 with the co-author in the starring role, but there are bits of it strewn around the internet already. Binder avoided them: "I watched maybe five minutes because I personally didn't want to watch what he (O'Hare) was doing and start emulating."

What he and the play's production staff were trying to glean were a few technical tricks: This play has been called the one with the most stage effects ever done at Gulfshore Playhouse.

There's not a spate of costume changes, either, because this is a story within a story: The Poet is address the audience as he unravels his "Iliad," offering only the hint that he has been telling it over generations of listeners who don't hear well enough about the insanity of war. As he confides at the beginning:  “Every time I sing this song, I hope it’s the last time.”

"Whether it's Homer or not is ambiguous," Binder said, although he sees a parallel. "He keeps on telling his story."

'An Iliad'

What: Gulfshore Playhouse opening production, a contemporary retelling of Home's "The Iliad"; 

Where: Norris Community Center, 

When: Various times Oct. 20-Nov. 4

Tickets: $20-$65

To buy: box office or 1-866-811-4111

More information: gulfshoreplayhouse.org