my father, odysseus - teacher resources

TEACHER RESOURCE PACKMINOTAURFOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH PUPILS IN YEAR 1 – 3TEACHER RESOURCE PACK

MY FATHER,

FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH STUDENTS IN YEAR 7+

ODYSSEUS

MY FATHER, ODYSSEUS15 MAR - 8 APR 2016 | FOR STUDENTS IN YEAR 7+

I WANT TO GO HOME.

Telemachus’ father left long ago to fight a war. Tel doesn’t remember him. Now the man of the house, he must step up to defend his father’s legacy and protect his mother from the suitors that lounge around the court.

Meanwhile, the great Odysseus has been trapped by the goddess Kalypso for ten long years. Lost in his memories of past glories he deeply longs to return home.

This timeless Greek myth of a son searching for his father and a father searching for himself has been reinvented by extraordinary playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker to create a modern, rich and thoughtful new work that explores masculinity and the effects of war.

4. INTRODUCTION

5. INTERVIEW WITH TIMBERLAKE WERTENBAKER, WRITER

8. INTERVIEW WITH SERDAR BILIS, DIRECTOR

9. IMAGE OF THE SET MODEL BOX

10. DRAMA SESSION PLANS 11. SESSION 1: INTRODUCING CHARACTERS AND THEMES

13. SESSION 2: THE OPENING OF THE PLAY – CHORAL WORK

16. SESSION 3: FAMILY

18. SESSION 4: PENELOPE AND TELEMACHUS

20. SESSION 5: POST SHOW

RESOURCES FOR DRAMA SESSIONS21 . RESOURCE 1: TEXT EXTRACTS

22. RESOURCE 2: THE OPENING OF THE PLAY

23. RESOURCE 3: INFORMATION FOR TELEMACHUS - TEACHER IN ROLE

24. RESOURCE 4: EXTRACTS FROM THE ODYSSEY

27. RESOURCE 5: PENELOPE AND THE SUITORS PAINTING

28. RESOURCE 6: PENELOPE AND TELMACHUS PAINTING

29. RESOURCE 7: SYNOPSIS OF THE PLAY

33. RESOURCE 8: BACKGROUND TO THE TROJAN WAR

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTIONWelcome to the teacher resources for Timberlake Wertenbakers’ My Father, Odysseus. This specially commissioned play, written for an audience aged 11 and over, will be a fresh, contemporary version of Homer’s epic story of a son seeking his father and a father trying to find his way home.

Wertenbaker describes her play as a reaction to, rather than an adaptation of, Homer’s original epic poem. My Father, Odysseus will draw on the first four of Homer’s books which focus on Telemachus’ decision to take action and the later books which tell of Odysseus’ return. Homer’s poem endures because of the universality of the human stories it tells and the questions it raises; each new version resonating with the time of telling:

This story belongs to a time long ago in a place called GreeceThis story is taking place now in LondonSomewhere in AsiaOr the middle EastSouth AmericaHere anyway and now.

Telemachus has never known his father who left for war when he was a baby, he doesn’t know if he is alive or dead. Now on the brink of adulthood, he feels the pressure to take action as a man against the suitors who are pursuing his mother, Penelope. For years they have been taking advantage of the hospitality of the house as they wait for her to choose one of them for her next husband.

Telemachus struggles to know what to do. Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, appears to him and urges him to wait no longer. He must take action to rid his family home of the suitors and take control of his father’s household.

Meanwhile, Odysseus, who is trapped on the Island with Kalypso after years fighting and many more trying to find a way home, is stirred to make one last attempt to return to his family; his wife Penelope and Telemachus, the son he has never known.

These resources will support teachers working with students in Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 in preparing for a visit to My Father, Odysseus and follow up work in the classroom, with context to the play, interviews with the creative team and practical drama activities. Drama activities will offer a range of strategies which enable students to make, perform, interpret and understand drama and theatre.

MY FATHER, ODYSSEUS - TEACHER RESOURCES

ACCOMPANYING TEACHER CPD - TUE 26 JAN 4.30-7PM

CPD is FREE for teachers and will be an opportunity for teachers to find out more about the production and to gain practical experience of the accompanying activities before running them with students.

To book your place on the CPD session, please email [email protected]

INTERVIEW WITH TIMBERLAKE WERTENBAKER (PLAYWRIGHT)Timberlake grew up in the Basque country near Saint-Jean-de-Luz. She was Arts Council writer in residence 1983 and Resident Writer at The Royal Court Theatre 1985. She is the recipient of numerous awards including an Olivier Award and the 1990 New York Drama Critics Award for Our Country’s Good and a Writers’ Guild Award for Three Birds Alighting on a Field. Her productions include: Jefferson’s Garden, The Ant and the Cicada and The Love of the Nightingale (RSC); Jules et Jim, Our Ajax (Southwark Playhouse); The Line (The Arcola Theatre); Galileo’s Daughter (Theatre Royal, Bath); Credible Witness, The Break of the Day, Three Birds Alighting on a Field, Our Country’s Good, The Grace of Mary Traverse, Abel’s Sister (Royal Court Theatre); Ash Girl (Birmingham Rep); After Darwin (Hampstead Theatre).

1) Why did you want to write a version of The Odyssey now? What are the main themes or questions you are exploring?

Purni (Artistic Director of the Unicorn) suggested it to me and I thought it would be interesting because there are a lot of children and young people whose fathers are fighting somewhere on one side or another, for one thing or another. The first four books, called the Telemachus Books, and the last few books deal with Telemachus much more than Odysseus and are very much about a boy coming of age and having to face all this, being without a father and finding his father again. All of that interested me and it seemed to me that it was a contemporary story as much as it was a story set in ancient Greece.

Odysseus has all these adventures and he’s also missing for twenty years. So it’s the missing father and the father himself who is facing his own monsters difficulties and a son and a mother left at home not knowing where he is. This is so common now.

2) How much is it a play about war?

Odysseus has gone to war for ten years and has then been missing for ten years, but it’s not specifically a war play, it’s about absence in all ways because Odysseus himself isn’t quite sure who he is or what’s happened to him and he’s always telling stories – well I don’t want to get too much into that because that is my interpretation. It’s about absence and longing and the search for the father and the father not knowing what’s happened to his son. It’s about the consequences of war, let’s put it that way.


3) In writing the play for the Unicorn, which is primarily for a young audience aged 11 and above, how has that affected the way you approach the writing?

It hasn’t really. I have written The Ash Girl for a younger audience and as far as I’m concerned a younger audience is equally intelligent, equally able to enjoy theatre and I’m just writing what I enjoy writing really and that’s it. If it’s completely impossible then someone will tell me, but I completely trust that age group, well I trust any age group really. I think children are completely capable of absorbing anything and if they don’t want to absorb it then they don’t. I used to take my daughter when she was aged four to Shakespeare and she was completely interested. She didn’t get everything obviously but you know. I’m simply trying to not make a big thing of that, well obviously two of the characters are young, but that’s about it.

4) Can you talk a little about your process of writing? In particular how you move between Homer’s Odyssey and your play My Father, Odysseus – the process of adaptation.

I think it would be a bit misleading to call it an adaptation of The Odyssey, it isn’t really an adaptation, it’s a kind of reaction to The Odyssey, a parallel universe really. Obviously I’m very aware of and I know The Odyssey and I’ve been reading it again and I’m just trying to be really free and let it come in. I think it permeates in the way that all these stories permeate - you’re always influenced by something and in this case it’s obviously a very strong influence because it’s Homer and powerful stuff. I’ve used the story, but it’s very free and it just isn’t an adaptation.

The Odyssey is obviously the starting point and I use quite a bit of it, but I think this play is set in no time, because in theatre, it can be so many times at once. That’s what interests me about the theatre. And these stories are told in so many different ways and mean different things at different times.

5) How many drafts would you generally do?

I do a lot of drafts, it depends how it goes, sometimes you’re closer to a final draft and sometimes you have to do quite a lot of work. I tend to try and get a sense of the whole thing and then go back to it and then find I’ve made a complete mess of it and start again.

I think different writers work in different ways, I think some writers do that in their heads but I tend to do it on paper; I work through a lot of drafts. What I’ve noticed when I look back on things is there will be bits that will really stay the same throughout and there are bits that change. It’s a cliché that writing is re-writing and I think that’s very much the case for me. I mean playwriting is a kind of excavation, you know looking for something. It’s like going into an underground city; you hit a bit and then you hit a bit somewhere else and then eventually you’ve actually got what you were looking for. Sometimes you hit in a more exact spot and sometimes you’re really quite far away and it takes a while to get it. You don’t know until the end, until you’ve got this city, then you know what’s going on.


6) As you are writing do you imagine how it will look and feel on the stage, or is there a big gap between what you present to the director and what is then realised?

It’s very difficult because I sort of go between the actual thing that I’m imagining, let’s say a Greek island somewhere, or a place in London, or it could be the same thing at once. Then also the sense of the stage. I never write stage directions, or very, very basic ones. But I do imagine it, but I also like to leave it to the director to find a way through it and sometimes I don’t want to be prescriptive. I mean it’s interesting on stage, people come on and people go off and that’s really terribly interesting and that’s what I work on; when they come on, when they come off, what they’re doing. So I do imagine them on the stage. But beyond that I don’t imagine very much.

I might give some possible stage directions, I don’t mean stage directions, instructions, if people are going to do something on stage then I’ll suggest it, but if a director decides to do it in a different way that’s fine.

7) Can you tell us about the form of your play, are you writing in verse?

I wouldn’t call it verse. It has rhythm and it’s not naturalistic, it’s not naturalistic dialogue. I break up lines on the page quite a lot, I want that line to have a half breath, so when you look at it it looks quite broken and that’s really an indication for the actors to have a little moment, just for them to see that there’s a slightly different thought. It’s to give the actors a sense of the rhythm and the pace of it. But that’s it. The last thing I would call myself is a poet. But I don’t write naturalistic dialogue either.

8) What do you hope the audience will take away?

I think we need stories and I hope they will just take away the sense of, an interest in, the story and if they then want to go back to Homer then that will be great. It would be lovely if the people who came to see it got an interest in The Odyssey itself I mean I remember coming across it, I don’t remember what kind of version, at 11 or so and being very interested and taken with it because I didn’t really know much about it. It’s really not for me to say what the audience take away; it’s for me to do the best I can and for them to take away something.


INTERVIEW WITH SEDAR BILIS (DIRECTOR)Serdar is from Istanbul. He directed his first professional production at the Arcola Theatre and was invited to the Directing course at the National Theatre. Serdar became first a resident director and then Associate Director at Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse where he has directed a number of productions; most recently Bright Phoenix by Jeff Young at Liverpool Everyman and Sex and the Three Day Week by Stephen Sharkey at Liverpool Playhouse. In recent years Serdar has been working internationally, directing shows in İstanbul and Mexico.

1) Why did you want to direct My Father, Odysseus?

It’s the father of all stories, well at least most of them. It is about a journey that is pregnant with big questions about life, identity and the notion of ‘Home’. I have been intrigued and amazed by this epic and wanted to direct it for a long time now. And what could be better than a resonant old story that meets a dynamic contemporary playwright like Timberlake? This version is lean and nimble yet has all the depth and breath of the original. I am curious about the hybrid world of this piece that marries the panoramic views of the ocean with the minute details that take place between the members of a nuclear family.

2) Do you have any initial ideas about how you might stage the piece? Have you a sense of the look and feel of the production?

As of now I can only talk about a ‘hunch’ for the production in the sense that Peter Brook uses the word. The fluidity that is required by such a piece demands a mythic-realist approach to the staging.The staging will use live middle eastern music to create a world that is both familiar and mythical. I am particularly interested in exploring the Kurdish and North African story telling traditions. We will try and see the events from the eyes of Tel, the son of Odyseus. And the aesthetics of the design should have the wilderness of the imagination of a teenage boy.

3) How do you feel the play will speak to young audiences at the Unicorn and the times we live in now?

Early teens are the times when you properly question who you are. I think the play will have an immediate connection with young audiences because of the transformation of its protagonist, Tel. Tel takes a brave step in his early life to change his destiny. He goes through a transformation. He moves from childhood into adulthood. The play seriously questions the pressures of growing up in a male driven society.


IMAGE OF THE SET MODEL BOX

Set designed by Louie Whitemore


DRAMA LESSON PLANSThe play roots the story in the past, in ancient Greece, as well as in the present, in London and elsewhere in the world. In the same way, this scheme aims to root the drama in the characters and setting of the play but also allow students to find the connection to their own lives and experiences, so that they can bring themselves and their understanding of the world to this ancient and timeless story.

The five session plans are designed in a way that they can be run as a complete scheme of learning. Sessions build sequentially, however they are made up of flexible components which teachers can choose to move around, develop or exclude, depending on their particular setting.

The scheme explores characters and themes which students will encounter at the opening of the play and gives them the opportunity to be familiar with some of the context, characters and themes before their visit, but without pre-empting the experience of seeing the play. By engaging with background to the events that happen on stage, students’ individual responses to the performance can be expanded and deepened.

Using extracts of the text in some of the activities will allow students to explore the form and content of the play, and to understand the playwright and directors intentions as they make their own creative decisions in relation to the text.

DRAMA STRATEGIES

Some of the key strategies used in the sessions are: still image, thought tracking, teacher and student in role, script writing, whole class and group improvisation, rehearsed short scenes, cross-cutting and choral work.


SESSION ONE:

INTRODUCINGCHARACTERS & THEMESAIMS• To introduce key characters, themes and tensions.• To explore extracts of the script physically and vocally and become familiar with the language.• To encourage students to achieve together, exchanging ideas and creating a shared piece of work.

STRATEGIESGroup discussion, still image, text exploration, simple devising, sharing and responding.

OPENING DISCUSSION Introduce the play My Father, Odysseus by Timberlake Wertenbaker, based on Homer’s The Odyssey. Ask students what they think of when they hear The Odyssey – does it have any resonance for them? Do they know of the Trojan Horse, Cyclops, the gods Poseidon and Athena for example? Draw out their prior knowledge and associations.

Explain that the play, and the work that you’ll do beforehand, is based on the great narrative poem which was written thousands of years ago (historians are not certain of the exact date). Homer’s poem is about a man called Odysseus who leaves his home to fight a war but then does not return for many years. It is the story of his long journey home, but also about the wife and son he leaves behind. Timberlake Wertenbaker has used Homer’s poem as the inspiration for writing a new play relevant to young people in 2016.

STATUESAsk the class to walk around the space and, when you say, make still images of some of the key characters in The Odyssey:

A great warrior hero

An abandoned wife

A boy without his father

An angry god

A one-eyed giant

An unwanted admirer

In small groups discuss how these characters could fit together in a possible narrative. Ask students to represent this narrative in a series of three still images that show how the characters might be connected.


DEVISED MOMENTS Move the class into five groups and give each group a theme/title from the list below. Ask groups to make a physical image that represents your theme, as you count down from 10 to 0.

Revenge

Anger

Loneliness

Loss

Acting like a man

Now give each group the corresponding text fragment from the play (resource 1) and ask them to use it within their images in some way. They can change and adapt their images and will need to decide how to share and use the text within their group.

SHARING AND RESPONDINGSee each group’s work and discuss what kind of a story they see emerging, paying particular attention to the characters and themes and how they seem to connect and relate across the short scenes they have created.

There is no need to play the scenes in chronological order; the activity asks them to consider what they think this play might be about, what kind of territory we are in, without any wrong or right answers as they begin to infer meaning from a few elements, images and words.


SESSION TWO:

THE OPENING OF THE PLAY - CHORAL WORKAIMS• To stage the opening lines of the play as a chorus; considering what an audience would see, hear

and interpret.• To become familiar with the feel and rhythm of opening lines from the play.• To explore the character of Telemachus and his feelings of frustration and impotence

STRATEGIESEnsemble and chorus work, simple devising, character moulding, teacher-in-role, hot-seating.

OPENING DISCUSSION Introduce the notion of a Greek Chorus: A Greek chorus is a homogeneous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. The chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison and sometimes wore masks.

WARM UPStart with a simple STOP / GO activity, asking students to move around the space, finding a group energy and pace. When you say STOP students should stop in a space on their own, with the whole group covering the whole room evenly, without clusters or big gaps.

Work together as a group to really move as one; ask them to find a way to stop and start moving without any one person leading. Discuss what is needed to make this happen (discipline, listening and feeling the group, peripheral vision etc).

CALL AND RESPONSENow establish a call and response exercise; now when you say STOP you will also add a number which has a response attached:

1: Everyone moves to the edges of the room.

2: Stand together in a group make eye contact with the teacher and then move slowly as one towards them.

3: Make eye contact with teacher from wherever they are and move slowly away.

4: Students stand still where they are and face the audience. Teacher says ‘this story takes place in London.’ Students respond with the line ‘this story takes place long ago’.

5: Teacher says ‘A boy, his father’s gone’. Students take up an image of the boy.


First establish each instruction and rehearse them a couple of times. With number 4 establish how you will count a beat in which to turn to face the audience and another beat before speaking the lines.

Now ask students to think about the activity in terms of performance. Split the group in two and ask one group to become the audience and the other to perform. Swap the groups around.

Students should focus on being efficient in their movements, focused and disciplined and working as an ensemble.

Discuss:What did the audience see when watching the chorus work? Draw out the ingredients of successful chorus work from what you have seen: clear action, moving/speaking in unison, acting as one but also as individuals, representing the ‘community’, synchronised, clear relationship to audience.Did they begin to make any narrative readings of what they saw? What questions do they have about the play?

STAGING THE OPENING‘I wouldn’t call it verse. It has rhythm and it’s not naturalistic dialogue. I break up lines on the play quite a lot. I want that line to have a half breath. That’s really for the actors to see that there’s a slightly different thought, to give them a sense of the rhythm and the pace of it.’ Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Read the opening of the play around the circle so that students hear the whole text together.

Divide the class into five groups.

Give each group a section of the opening text (resource 2) to present to the rest of the class. They will need to make creative decisions about how to stage their section of the text and use some of the ingredients you have identified that make up a chorus. They will need to consider:

• How to use the text chorally• How to use physical theatre techniques (unison, gesture, pace, canon, levels, direction) to stage

their piece.

When all the scenes are prepared, stage them in chronological order. You could use lighting here to create more of a sense of performance if available.

Adding music to underscore the scenes will also add an extra dimension. Try different kinds of music and see what impact it has on movement, pace and choral speaking.

Reflect on students’ work and what the opening of the play might tell us about the rest of the story.

TELEMACHUS – MOULDING AND HOT SEATINGAsk for a volunteer to be Telemachus and ask the rest of the class to mould them into a still image. Draw on both what you know about Telemachus from the opening text, but also what you imagine or sense might be true. There may a two or three versions that you want to create.

Now explain that you will go into role as Telemachus and that they can ask him questions to find out more about his situation. Ask students to think about what kind of questions they might want to ask him to get the questioning in role started.

Take up an image of Telemachus that echoes one of your moulded images and in role answer students’ questions.


There is useful information in resource 3 to prepare for this in-role activity. But the key points to cover are:

• What Telemachus does and doesn’t know about his father Odysseus - the stories which have come back from the war about his father; a hero who is both brave and clever.

• How he feels about the suitors in his house and what he feels he can and can’t do about the situation.

The role should open up questions and possible areas for future exploration without giving too much away or answering too many questions, but instead responding to what the students are interested in exploring.


SESSION THREE:

FAMILYAIMS• To explore the complex family dynamic at the heart of the play: mother, son, absent father.• To explore ideas around expectations of what it means to be a father or a son and the impact

separation has on these.• To introduce students to the key events in Odysseus’ journey and the timeline that leads up to the

opening of the play.

STRATEGIESStill image making, group discussion, transitioning between images, empathy triad.

FATHER, MOTHER, SON Explain that the play centres on a family with a father, a mother and a son and that we are going to explore that family dynamic, but that we are going to begin by thinking about universal ideas of family at different stages as a child grows up.

Move the class into groups and give each a different age for the son; 6 months, 7, 11, 14, and 16 years old.

Ask students to create an image of the family which captures a universal or archetypal picture of a family at these ages.

See the groups work and discuss the different needs of the son and what the dynamic of the family is at each age.

THE ABSENT FATHER

Explain that in the play, the father - Odysseus - leaves to go to war just after his son is born. Ask students to go back into their groups and to create an image of what happens when they take the father out of their picture. Ask them to transition from an image that includes Odysseus to an image without him, on a count of ten. Share the images and discuss:

• How does removing the father change the image?• What does the change feel like? • What does the absence of the father do to the relationship between the mother and son? • Which do you think is the most difficult age?

ODYSSEUS’ PARALLEL TIMELINENow give each group an extract from Homer’s Odyssey which tells them what Odysseus is doing as Telemachus is growing up (resource 4). Ask them to create an image, or short scene, which shows what Odysseus is doing at this time.


ODYSSEUS AND TELEMACHUS MEET IN A DREAMWorking in pairs, ask students to sit back to back and imagine a dream conversation between Telemachus and his Father, which begins with the line ‘Where are you father, why are you not here?’ Improvise the dialogue that follows.

See the improvisations and discuss what father and son know about each other and what they might imagine of each other’s lives.


SESSION FOUR:

PENELOPE AND TELEMACHUSAIMS• To explore the relationship between Telemachus and his mother, Penelope.• To consider how Telemachus might feel about the suitors and what he can do about the situation.• To use scripting and performance as a means of expressing ideas about character and themes.

STRATEGIESThought-tracking, using images as stimulus (reading and interpreting), character sculpting, short script writing, performance, empathy triad.

PENELOPE AND THE SUITORS Show the class the painting Penelope and the Suitors (resource 5).

Explain that Penelope in the image is weaving a shroud for the eventual funeral of her father-in-law, Laertes. She claims that as soon as she has completed the shroud she will be ready to choose one of the suitors as her husband. In the daytime she works on a great loom in the royal halls, but at night she secretly unravels the day’s weaving.

Spend some time reading the image; What do you notice? What do you think is happening? What questions do you have?

Ask students to take on the role of either one of the suitors or one of the maids and recreate the image as a whole class. Use a volunteer to play Penelope, or play this role yourself.

Thought-track the maids and the suitors. This will allow students to move from commenting about the picture to thinking from within and will build a layered and shared sense of this moment.

SCRIPTINGShow the class the painting Penelope and Telemachus (resource 6). Ask for two volunteers and then, as a class, sculpt them into the image with as much precision as you can. Thought-track Penelope and Telemachus in the image. Ask students to consider the relationship between mother and son.

Move students into groups of three and ask them to script the conversation that might take place between Penelope and Telemachus in this image. Ask them to come up with:

• 8 to 10 lines of dialogue in the exchange

• 3 stage directions

• Decide who leaves at the end of the scene

When they have finished their scripts, ask the groups to rehearse the scene with two actors and one director.


PLACING ODYSSEUSNow ask students to place the person who was their director into their scene, as Odysseus. This could be an image of him where they imagine he might be at this point (refer back to his parallel timeline), or it might be the spirit of Odysseus watching the scene between his wife and son.

Share the scenes and discuss the different interpretations.

EMPATHY TRIADAsk three students to make an image representing Penelope, Telemachus and Odysseus.

Ask the rest of the group to stand behind whoever they have the most sympathy for – the mother left alone to look after her child; the child left alone with his mother; the father who goes alone to war.

When the decisions are made and after discussion, each group (Penelope, Telemachus and Odysseus) takes turns to make an image using the three actors to show the rest of the group why they feel for their chosen character.

After all three images have been seen ask students if their feelings and thoughts have changed in a way that makes them want to change where they stand. Ask students to stand behind the character they have most sympathy for now and discuss. If people have moved, what changed their minds? If they stayed with their original choice, what new thoughts arose out of the activity?


SESSION FIVE:

POST-SHOWAIMS• To allow students to reflect on the experience of watching the play.• To connect the play to their drama work and open out the responses and questions it raised for

them.

STRATEGIESTransitioning between images, empathy triad, class discussion.

THE FAMILY REUNITED Remind students of the images they created of the family at 6 months, 7, 11, 14 and 16 years old.

Briefly discuss what happened in the play when Odysseus returns to his family after many years away.

Ask students to work in groups to show three images which depict where the characters are at the end of the play. Ask them to create a different image for Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope and show the situation at the end of the play from each perspective.

Now ask groups to find a way to transition from one image to the next. See each group’s work – you may want to watch two or three groups at a time, counting as they transition from one image to the next. Discuss:

• How possible is it for this family to carry on now that they are back together? • Who is going to struggle most after everything that has happened?

EMPATHY TRIADAsk for volunteers to represent each of the three characters at the end of the play and place them in the space. Ask the remaining students to place themselves within the space in relation to the person they feel closest to.

Discuss this empathy triad in comparison to the one you created before the play.


RESOURCE 1: TEXT EXTRACTSREVENGE

TELEMACHUSThe suitors eat and drink. They make fun of you.

ODYSSEUSThe first one to laugh I kill.

ANGER

I hate them I hate them I hate them!Listen Telemachus-she saysYou can’t sit there and hate and do nothing

LOSS

And then,no news.No message, nothing.All lines of communication: silent.No return.And the question: is he dead or alive?

ACT LIKE A MAN

Act like a manWhat is that supposed to mean?How would I knowwhat it is toact like a man?

LONELINESS

How did I find myself aloneon an island that’s familiarbut that I don’t recognise?

MY FATHER, ODYSSEUS - RESOURCES FOR DRAMA SESSIONS

RESOURCE 2: OPENING TEXT1)

This story belongs to a time long ago in a place called GreeceThis story is taking place in LondonSomewhere in AsiaOr the Middle EastSouth AmericaHere anyway and now.

2) A boy: his father’s gone missing.Thatcould be anywhereanytime.His father went off to fight.

3) At first, there was news.Battles fought, battles won. Battles lost. Advance, retreat, retake.And then,no news.No message, nothing.

4)

All lines of communication: silent.No return.And the question: is he dead or alive?And if alive, where?Wounded? Trapped? Went native? Converted? Joined the other side? Lost?

5)

And the boy is leftWithout a father.His name is Telemachus


RESOURCE 3: INFORMATION FOR TELEMACHUS HOT SEATINGThe aim of the teacher in role section is for students to explore Telemachus’ mental and emotional state at the opening of the play and understand the context and constraints on him at this time. The following offers suggestions for the kind of things you might want to refer to in role. The role work will be led by what is of interest to the students, as well as drawing forward important elements of the story and the dynamics between the key characters.

Telemachus doesn’t remember his father at all; he was just a baby when he left for war. The war began when Paris, a Trojan Prince, abducted King Menelaus’ wife Helen, when he was a guest of his in Sparta.

He has heard of his father being spoken about as a great hero.

The Trojan War lasted for ten years and was finally won when Odysseus broke the siege with the Trojan horse.

Other leaders have returned home but many died during the war; Ajax, Achilles etc.

There has been no news of Odysseus for many years.

The house is full of suitors who arrived to pursue his mother, Penelope.

Penelope and Telemachus are obliged to host these visitors, by their tradition of Xenia – This concept is very important in Greek culture. Xenia is a code of conduct which dictates they are generous and courteous to strangers, offering food and shelter to those in need and without asking any questions or asking anything of the guest – it is unconditional hosting. In return the guest should be polite and not make any unreasonable requests.

In ancient Greece people would believe that someone who was a stranger to them may in fact be a God in disguise and that therefore they might insult a God if they did not abide by the social code of Xenia. The Trojan War began when Paris violated the code; when he was a guest of Menelaus he abducted Menelaus’ wife Helen.


RESOURCE 4: EXTRACTS FROM THE ODYSSEY

ODYSSEUS’ INSTRUCTION TO PENELOPE – TELEMACHUS AGED 6 MONTHS

Penelope remembers the day Odysseus left for war.

He caught my right hand by the wrist and said, gently,‘Dear woman, I doubt that every Achaean under armsWill make it home from Troy, all safe and sound.The Trojans, they say, are fine soldiers too.So I cannot tell if the gods will sail me home againOr I’ll go down there, on the fields of Troy,But all things must rest in your control.Watch over my father and mother in the palace.But once you see the beard on the boy’s cheek, You wed the man you like, and leave your house behind.’

THE TROJAN HORSE – TELEMACHUS AGED 7

Odysseus and his men were hidden within the wooden Horse, which the Trojans thinking it was a gift from the gods, dragged inside the city walls. But still suspicious, they sent Helen to test the gift.

Three times you sauntered round our hollow ambush,Feeling, stroking its flanks,Challenging all our fighters, calling each by name –Yours was the voice of our long lost wives!It was Odysseus who damped our ardour, reined us backClamped his great hands on one man’s mouthAnd shut it brutally – yes he saved us all.

When night fell the warriors crept out of the horse and scattered through the streets of the city leaving ruin in their wake. And when the city was in ruins, and the Trojans defeated, the Achaeans could finally return home, victorious.


CYCLOPS - TELEMACHUS AGED 11

Odysseus and his men, hungry and running out of food, landed on the Island of the Cyclops. A group of them went to explore and entered the cave of the Cyclops where they found plenty of food and provisions. The one eyed giant returned, drove his sheep and goats into the cave and threw down the dry logs he had been collecting.

He flung them down in the cave – a jolting crash – We scuttled in panic to the deepest dark recess. Then to close the door he hoisted overheadA tremendous, massive slab – No twenty-two wagons could budge that boulder off the ground.When he lit a fire he spied Odysseus and the other sailors‘Stranger’’ he thundered out ‘now who are you?’ Lurching up, he lunged out with hands towards my menAnd snatching two at once, rapping them on the groundHe knocked them dead like pups –And ripping them limb from limb to fix his mealHe bolted them down like a mountain lion, left no scrap.

THE SIRENS - TELEMACHUS AGED 13

Sailing home, Odysseus was warned he would need to pass the Sirens who bewitch everyone that approaches them with their enchanting song. He tells his sailors to tie him to the mast of his ship so that he cannot escape.

And if I plead, commanding to set me free, then lash me faster, rope on pressing rope.

But before they do, he plugs their ears with beeswax so they cannot hear and can keep rowing past the sirens.

When the Sirens sensed at once a ship was racing past they burst into their high, thrilling song. So they sent their ravishing voices out across the air and the heart inside me throbbed to listen longer.I signalled the crew with frowns to set me free –They flung themselves at the oars and rowed on harder.


THE WRATH OF POSEIDON – TELEMACHUS AGED 15

Poseidon was angry with Odysseus because he had blinded Cyclops his son.

But now Poseidon, saw him, Odysseus sailing down the seaAnd it made his fury boil “I’ll give that man his swamping fill of trouble.”With that he rammed the clouds together – both hands Clutching his trident – churned the waves into chaos, whipping All the gales from every quarter

Odysseus thought he was doomed to die:

At that a massive wave came crashing down on his head,A terrific onslaught spinning his craft round and round – He was thrown clear of the decks –The steering-oar wrenched from his graspAnd in one lightning attack the brawlingGalewinds struck full force, snapping the mast mid-shaftAnd hurling the sail and sailyard across the sea.

BEWITCHED BY KALYPSO – TELEMACHUS 16

By now all survivors of the war had returned home; only Odysseus had been prevented from returning home. He had been trapped by the Goddess Kalypso who kept him in her Island cave and longed for him to marry her.

Odysseus, sitting, still, weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away with the tears he wept for his foiled journey home.Gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears.So coming up to him, the lustrous godess ventured,‘No need, my unlucky one, to grieve here any longer,No, don’t waste your life away. Now I am willing,heart and soul, to send you off at last. Come,take bronze tools, cut your lengthy timbers,make them into a broad-beamed raftand top it off with a half-deck high enoughto sweep you free and clear on the misty seas.


RESOURCE 5: PENELOPE AND THE SUITORS

Painting by John William Waterhouse (1912)


RESOURCE 6: PENELOPE AND TELEMACHUS


Image on Athenian red-figure cup, c. 440 BC

RESOURCE 7: SYNOPSIS OF THE PLAY IntroductionThe play begins with the Chorus introducing Telemachus and his mother Penelope, who have been left behind when Odysseus (Telemachus’ father) went to off to war many years ago. Telemachus, now a young man, doesn’t know if his father is alive or dead. A group of suitors fill their house, eating, drinking and waiting for Penelope to choose one of them for her new husband.

Chorus:A boy:his father’s gone missing.Thatcould be anywhereanytime.

Athena and TelemachusAthena, who could be a goddess or perhaps a figment of Telemachus’ imagination, urges Telemachus to take action; to stop moaning about the suitors and to do something about them. She suggests he should ‘act like a man’ and go and find his father.

Chorus:Athena.The voice in his headBut real.Just a bit-changeable.

The Suitors, Telemachus and PenelopeThe suitors intimidate and bully Telemachus. Athena appears to Telemachus and urges him to ‘act like a man’, but he doesn’t know what that means, he doesn’t know how to. However, when Penelope enters and asks for the musicians to stop singing about war, Telemachus turns on his mother and tells her that, as men, they like songs of war and that she should leave if she doesn’t.

Chorus:Penelope looks at her childno longer himself

Telemachus calls an assemblyTelemachus calls an assembly for the following day, he has never spoken at the publically before,but is determined to do something. The suitors continue to mock him. When he is alone he beginsto rehearse what he will say at the assembly. Penelope finds him and compares him to Odysseus who was a natural, spontaneous public speaker.

Penelope:Your father never prepared anything. He spoke on the spur of the moment.It came out better that way. It was more natural.

Athena and TelemachusAthena urges Telemachus to use his imagination to find a way to do something about his situation. So he sets off to find news of his father.

Athena:Use your imagination…


it’s really not that difficult to live a storyto cross other storiesto tune inand story hop.

OdysseusThe story cuts to Odysseus who is trapped by Kalypso the nymph on her island. He longs for home and reminisces about his war triumphs – particularly the victory of the Trojan Horse. Kalypso has kept Odysseus on her island by giving him everything he needs and by drugging him so that he is forgetful.But Kalypso realises it is now time for Odysseus to go home, so she helps him build a raft to cross the seas.

Odysseus:Home is where there are no monsters.And the storms are outdoors.

Telemachus and NestorMeanwhileAthena and Telemachus arrive at the home of Nestor, a friend of Odysseus who returned from the war many years ago. Nestor recognises Odysseus in Telemachus and speaks very highly of him. Nestor doesn’t know if Odysseus is alive or dead, but remembers that he last saw him was in the sea, under a wave – but clinging onto life.

Nestor:War takes it out of yousometimes you’d rather not remember.

Telemachus, Helen and MenelausAthena and Telemachus travel on to visit Menelaus and his wife, Helen. The war began when Menelaus’ wife Helen was abducted by Paris (son of the King of Troy). Menelaus, Odysseus and many other Greeks fought alongside each other to return Helen home. Menelaus sings the praises of Odysseus, but Helen tells Telemachus to think about it when people blame a woman for starting a war.

Helen:when they tell you they fought the war for honour think about it.And when they blame a woman, think about that too.

Odysseus and the Lotus EatersWe return to Odysseus who trying to make his way home. He is thinking about the war and what stopped him from returning. The play brings these memories to life. After the victory of The Trojan Horse he and his men set off for home, but landed on the beautiful island of the Lotus Eaters. The men ate the salad grown on the island which made them forget war and pain and feel good. It also made them disobey orders and many refused to continue with Odysseus on his journey.

Sailor:It’s delicious. It’s sweet. It makes you feel good. And you don’t have to obey orders.

Odysseus and CirceOn another island, Odysseus and his remaining men find Circe the enchantress. The sailors circle and sexually intimidate Circe, but as they do they turn into pigs. Odysseus accuses Circe of transforming them into pigs, but she tells him she doesn’t have to, because that is what they already are. Circe tells


Odysseus he should go home, but that first he must visit the underworld.

Circe:I see pigs when they pretend to be men and I see someone dead who pretendsto be alive and that’s you.

Odysseus and the UnderworldOdysseus goes down to the underworld – ‘a pit filled with blood on the edge of the world’. There he meets those he has loved that are now dead as they come and drink from the pit. He sees his mother who he wants to hold, but she slips away); Tiresias the prophet, who tells him he has a son, Agamemnon, who was killed by his wife’s lover when he returned from the war); Achilles, who tells Odysseus he would rather be a farmer or a slave than dead and finally Ajax who Odysseus fought with, though Odysseus can’t remember what they fought over. Odysseus thinks that he will never get away from the dead.

Odysseus:They keep comingswarms of shadowsdrinking bloodwanting to talk

Telemachus and AthenaBack at Menelaus’ palace Telemachus wakes. He tells Athena that he thinks he has seen Odysseus dead in his dreams. He wants to leave and go home. He thinks all that he has heard is just stories, and all about Odysseus, not about him.

Telemachus:It’s always about him, it’s never about me in this story.Athena:It is about you but not in the way you think.

Odysseus and the SirensOdysseus, who is still journeying home, remembers how he became stranded alone on Kalypso’s island. He had been on a boat with his few remaining sailors. As they entered the stretch of water governed by the sirens he made his sailors strap him to the sail and then block their ears with wax and rags so that they wouldn’t hear the sirens’ music. But the sailors became suspicious and unclogged their ears. They were enchanted by the sirens’ music so they forgot about the war and jumped into the sea.

Odysseus:Who could resistwhen you’ve been in a warthe promise of forgetting

Eumaios’ café – the reunionOdysseus arrives on the outskirts of Athens at Eumaios’ café dressed like an old beggar and says he has stories of the war to tell. Eumaios talks about the rules of hospitality; by welcoming migrants to his café he has the opportunity to exchange stories which broadens each of their horizons. Eumaios tells Odysseus about the suitors waiting for Penelope to make a decision. Telemachus enters the café; he’s in despair, thinking that his father is dead. He thinks he’ll end up like the pathetic old beggar who is in the café (who he doesn’t realise is in fact his father, Odysseus). Odysseus sees Telemachus and thinks he looks arrogant and imagines that he might be one of the suitors. Odysseus and Telemachus


finally meet. Odysseus seems to transform in front of Telemachus’ eyes – he becomes his father. But it is awkward still – Odysseus is not the strong and heroic father that Telemachus has always imagined. ‘I can’t find a trace of the father I dreamt of in him’.

Athena:he imagines his fathercovered in gloryand how I can say to him:there is no glory.Glory requires an illusion.

Telemachus’ planOdysseus wants to go back and fight the suitors. But Telemachus has another idea. He explains that Odysseus should arrive at the house in disguise as an illegal immigrant. Meanwhile Telemachus, having returned home without his father and assuming him to be dead, will set a competition – whoever is able to string Odysseus’ old bow will win Penelope’s hand in marriage.

Chorus:Odysseus listens.This poised, cautious, thoughtful young manhis sonnot the kind of son he expectednot flamboyantbut smartdefinitely smart

The plan enactedIn the Palace at Athens the suitors taunt Odysseus who they think is an old beggar. The competitionis announced and the bow brought down. Telemachus goes first. He is about to succeed when Odysseus interrupts him and tells him (without the suitors hearing) that he, Odysseus, should be the one to string the bow as it belongs to him. But first he suggests the suitors must try. It’s too difficult, so they say they want to warm the bow so it bends more easily. Telemachus says they should let the beggar try – as a joke. Odysseus strings the bow. There is a massacre as Odysseus and Telemachus fight together and kill all the suitors. Then they look at each other: father and son.

Odysseus:And I look at youcovered in bloodfrom your first battleMy son.

PenelopePenelope ends the play with a speech where she voices her inner thoughts to the audience; she explains that she now doesn’t recognise, or even like, her husband or her son.

Penelope:All that violenceall that noiseall that blood I’ll have to clean.and I’ll remain quietan image of patience and fidelitybut what I really feelyou’ll never know


RESOURCE 8: BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE TROJAN WARIt will be useful to have some understanding of the Trojan War, the backdrop to The Odyssey, as context for the drama work. Odysseus left home when Telemachus was a baby to fight in the war.The war, which is the subject of The Iliad, Homer’s prequel to The Odyssey, lasted for ten years in which many lives were lost. After the Greek victory it then took Odysseus another ten years to get home. This homeward journey and the events that prevented him from getting home are the subject of The Odyssey. We have assembled some key points from the story which may be of use to you.Troy was an ancient city state on the coast of Turkey, across the sea from Greece.

The war started when Eris, goddess of Discord, stirred up trouble when she wasn’t invited to a wedding. She threw a golden apple labelled ‘to the fairest’ into the midst of the wedding party and three goddesses; Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, all rushed to claim it. Paris, (son of the King of Troy, King Priam), was asked by Zeus to settle the argument and decide who should receive the apple.The goddesses each attempted to bribe Paris; Hera, offered him an empire; Athena promised him glory in war. But Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. This offer Paris couldn’t refuse.

However Menelaus (King of Sparta, one of the Greek city states) had already married Helen, who was a Greek princess.

The goddess Aphrodite could not break her word to Paris, so they sailed to Greece to visit Menelaus and Helen as their guests. Aphrodite made sure that Paris was irresistible to Helen and she ran away with him to Troy.

Menelaus was furious when he discovered Helen was gone. He demanded that his brother, Agamemnon, lead an army against Troy. The other kings of the Greek city states had pledged an oath of allegiance when Menelaus and Helen married. So to support Menelaus, they gathered their armies and met at Aulis to set sail for Troy and rescue Helen.

A thousand ships set sail for Troy, with armies led by the greatest Greek heroes — Achilles, Patroclus, Diomedes, Odysseus, Nestor, and the two warriors named Ajax. This is why Helen is known as ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca.

You can find maps online which show the Greek city states that made up the army which set off for Troy to return Helen to Sparta and her husband:

http://ladyofsorrow.tripod.com/map2.htmhttp://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/NEWhp252/portnov/trojanwar.html

The Trojans were not defeated easily and the war lasted ten years. The city of Troy was surroundedby a thick, 20 foot high stone wall, meaning the Trojans were very well protected against the attacking Greek army. The Greeks laid siege to Troy for three years, but could not break their defences.

Odysseus then had an idea. He commanded the Greek ships to leave Troy and sail back towards Greece but only so far that they were out of the Trojan’s sight, pretending that they had conceded defeat and finally left for home. Odysseus and ten of his best soldiers then built a giant wooden horse,


which they hid inside and positioned outside the gates to the city of Troy.

The people of Troy were confused about what the giant horse meant, but the priests decided thatit must be a gift from the Greeks to the gods and that they must take it inside to honour it, so not to offend the gods who might punish them. So they bought the giant horse through the gates and into the city.

The people of Troy then had a huge party to celebrate the end of the war and the defeat of the Greeks. They ate and danced and drank through the night until they fell asleep.

Meanwhile, under the cover of darkness, the Greek ships were sailing back to Troy.

Whilst the people of Troy slept, Odysseus and his men climbed out of the wooden horse through a secret trapdoor and opened the gates to the city. The Greek army charged in and quickly defeated the Trojans. The gods took great interest in the war. Poseidon, Hera, and Athena aided the Greeks, while Aphrodite and Ares favoured the Trojans. Zeus and Apollo, although frequently involved in the action of the war, remained impartial.

Menelaus found Helen. He drew his sword to kill her because of all the trouble she had caused, but the goddess Aphrodite protected her, and when Menelaus looked at Helen, he was so overwhelmed with her beauty that his sword fell to the ground.

The Trojans were defeated, Helen was rescued and Odysseus was hailed a hero.

The Greek armies, including Odysseus then prepared for their journey home.

Many died fighting and would not return home; Achilles and Ajax two great warriors both perished.Agamemnon made it home but was killed by Aegisthus, his wife Clytemnestra’s lover.

Odysseus’ good friend Nestor made it back and was able to tell stories of Odysseus’ bravery and cunning. He was the last one to see Odysseus who was in the sea being engulfed by a wave. Buthe also tells how Poseidon – who cannot tell a lie – assured him that Odysseus had lived.

Menelaus and Helen both made it back to Sparta, after wandering for many years.

Of the 1000 ships that sailed to war, fewer than 100 returned.

Everything Telemachus hears about his father is a great deal to live up to. Odysseus is considered one of the finest Greek warriors and the most cunning and quick witted. The stories of Odysseus’ cleverness and bravery return back from the war, even when he doesn’t.


MY FATHER, ODYSSEUSA Unicorn production

By Timberlake WertenbakerDirected by Serdar BilisResource pack written by Catherine Greenwood

my father, odysseus - teacher resources

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