Sing, muse, of three sweaty men, dressed all in white; James Dunnell-Smith, Joshua George Smith and John Woodburn are The Sleeping Trees and their Odyssey is lively, loud and ebullient.
The trio profess to ‘reimagine classical texts, without rereading them’ – and their modus operandi is certainly evident in the show. Here, laughs come from the absurdity and energy of these manic men; it’s rarely particularly clever but it’s usually marvellously funny.
Added to the narrative is a peculiar but entertaining backstory – Ares has been sent by Hades to capture Homer who has some vital information: the foolproof method of defeating a god in battle. Accompanied by a lesser-god on work experience, Ares is lured into listening to Homer’s tale.
All of the familiar episodes are present; the trio begin with a brief retelling of the Trojan War finale, we encounter the Sirens and the Cyclops, before a final showdown with Poseidon. The transitions between each scene and each character are incredibly well-imagined, and their physical inventiveness provides a consistent flow of laughs, as the trio shift and slide, gurn and growl, becoming the varied dramatis personae of the epic.
Most funny, though, are the absurd little additions that the men have made to the tale. They recurrently visit the scene back in Ithaca, where Penelope scolds her increasingly depressive son for not eating his greens. In the Cyclops’ cave, Odysseus runs into a barmy bat which helps him on his journey. It’s this scattergun zaniness that gives this particular group their own unique appeal.
Occasionally the gags are a little too predictable and sometimes doing a loud silly voice is a weak substitute for more inventive humour, but on the whole this is an exciting and exceedingly funny show.
