‘Wallet, phone, keys, sword,” Telemachus recites to himself as he checks his pockets. Backpack on, teddy tucked in and he’s ready to go, setting off on a grand quest to find his dad. What he doesn’t reckon on is finding himself along the way.
At its highest points – of which there are many – Nina Segal’s new production of The Odyssey is electric. Made for families, Jennifer Tang’s direction delights in Naomi Hammerton’s fast-paced songs, whirling dances and moments of highly absurd dramatic images. It’s when the music slows and the pace falters that the tension drops away. But this cast approach everything with full hearts and bright smiles, so that every lag is soon followed by a new burst of energy and adventure.
By reframing the Greek epic to follow Telemachus (a beautifully hopeful, cheeky Shaka Kalokoh) as he traces his father’s footsteps across treacherous oceans and through deadly caves, Segal’s adaptation takes a cynical eye to Odysseus’s journey, revealing how adults can be fallible, and how sometimes a hero gains the title through imparting hurt. Even a witch and a cyclops can be lonely, Telemachus learns. Even parents make mistakes. Each encounter is written with crisp clarity, the moral nuzzled beneath the songs and laughter.
Cerys Burton and Kimmy Edwards are wonderfully nimble as the two muses whom Penelope sends along with her son, their silver dresses, which glitter like disco balls, soon layered under Rosie Elnile’s playful designs of fluff and fur as they transform into sheep, beasts and sirens. Penelope may be left at home but Cash Holland, who plays Telemachus’s mum with tenderness, is frantically busy appearing in ever more comic roles, shapeshifting to become now a swaggering cyclops, now an aged Tiresias. All four work hard and fast, and seem to genuinely have fun doing it.
Tonight the sound levels are slightly off, making it hard to hear some lyrics. But all the small moments of distraction can be smoothed throughout the run, and the overriding atmosphere is one of excitement and exploration. This is a beautifully designed, smartly told story of a child learning how to make his own way in the world, and a parent lovingly letting her son figure it out for himself. With a bag she packed for him, of course.
• At the Unicorn theatre, London, until 21 April
