SF Bay Guardian, June 24 , 1998
Annie Guy

Though the Shotgun Players condense Homer's epic to a reasonable run time (an hour and 40 minutes, with a 10-minute intermission), this outdoor summer production hits all the high points of the classic tale and does it with style, humor, wit, and plenty of practiced voice projection from the quality ensemble cast. Blending Greek chorus-style storytelling with contemporary twists (Odysseus to the query of his next stop after conquering Troy, 'I'm going to Disneyland!' No, no, no, explains the cast, that hasn't been invented for 5,000 years yet...Better try Ithaca) and using puppets to make giants of the gods - the Cyclops creation alone is worth the trip out - this Odyssey will make you fondly remember your freshman humanities reading of the tale and indoctrinate a lucky next generation in the best possible way.

SF Weekly, August 19 , 1999
Michael Scott Moore

Fantastic Voyage

Not even Aristophanes had the audacity to put all of Homer's Odyssey onstage, so any modern effort should either be admired for its temerity or carefully avoided. The story behind this performance is that Richard Silberg, a teacher at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, wrote a condensed version for his students to perform, and the Shotgun Players saw in his script the chance to put on an impossible-sounding outdoor show that included puppets (like last year's Midsummer Night's Dream). The result is pure entertainment. There are towering puppet gods, a Wise Fool-style Cyclops, waving blue tarps for the swaying sea, original a cappella musical numbers, and -- as a concession snack -- "cyclopsicles."

It was written for kids, and in the first half the Shotgun cast tends to play down to the audience, but the whimsicality at work makes this show more interesting than any of the overserious screen versions you can rent or catch on TV. And by the end, somehow, Silberg's script brings out a measure of pathos and profundity that you don't expect to find around midafternoon in a public park.

The weakest part of the play is that it's narrated by "Aleithia," a sort of matron-muse of memory, who was flat-out invented by Silberg to make his job easier. I saw an understudy named Carolyn Padilla do the part; she overintoned and seemed underprepared. And most of the other parts have a happy enthusiasm that grates at first, especially Michael Storm's fey rendition of Hermes. (Actually Hermes is annoying all the way through.) But Beth Donohue plays Penelope with an effectively melancholy tear in her voice that gives the show weight, and Keith Davis is an amusingly arrogant and heartfelt Odysseus. Their performances carry the show at the end, through Odysseus' speech about mortality and love -- which nicely unifies the script -- and all the way to the excellent final scene, when Odysseus proves his identity and Penelope her chastity through the riddle of the marriage bed.

Scylla and Charybdis are missing altogether, which is too bad. One reason I went to the show was to see the octopus-beaked sea monster and the abysmal whirlpool rendered onstage. But I guess glossing over them is excusable. Zeus is played by Antoinette Abbamonte, a deaf actress who signs her words and manipulates the papier-máche godhead while two other players intone the words for the listening audience. (Two ASL interpreters sign the rest of the show for the deaf.) The Lotus Eaters are evoked in a swaying lotuslike dance by Marin Van Young and Amy Sass (another understudy); and Polyphemus is a magnificent, wisecracking, papier-máche puppet that eats people whole and bleeds crimson streamers from his eye sockets. Details like this are what give the Shotgun Players their energy. They're not afraid to fail, so when they succeed it feels spontaneous, ragged, and fun.

The Oakland Tribune, June 27, 1998
Chad Jones

One of the world's great stories will be filling up the great outdoors in Berkeley and Oakland parks through the summer. The Shotgun Players, Berkeley's most ambitious small theatre troupe, has opened its second annual summer tour with a snazzy new adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey.

...This Odyssey is a little like Disney's animated version of Hercules. It's not as cutesy, but it brings this ancient tale screaming into the '90s with panache. There are enough rollicking blues numbers, smart contemporary jokes and outrageously wonderful costumes to delight both kids and adults. Even the dogs present on opening day last weekend barked with approval several times during the show.

If the kids don't already know the story of the great Greek warrior Odysseus and his 10-year struggle to get home to Ithaca after the war, this is a painless introduction. In two hours and two acts, Silberg faithfully condenses the epic into a sort of 'greatest hits' package and leaves ample space for all kinds of theatrical silliness.

The star of this show is definitely the Cyclops who appears at the end of Act One. An enormous puppet/costume designed by Christine Cilley, the giant one-eyed monster is inhabited by Michael Storm while two other actors manipulate the creature's enormous hands. In a nifty bit of stagecraft, the beast eats several of the soldiers in quick, giant gulps and quips, 'Ah, the other white meat.' Or when he comes back from a day tending his sheep, he enters the cave and says, 'Hi, honey! I'm home. What's for dinner?' Then, spying the cowering soldiers, moans, 'Aw, Greek food again?'

Another wonderful aspect to this retelling is the way director Amy Sass has worked in the use of sign language throughout the show. Actor Antoinette Abbamonte, an instructor of the Deaf Theatre at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, plays Zeus, king of the gods. She signs all of her dialogue while two actors translate from opposite ends of the performance space.

Whenever any of the other gods - Athena, Hermes, Circe - speak to one another, they use sign language, and whenever the muses sing or speak, they also incorporate sign language into their singing and dancing. The result is a beautifully choreographed, movement-filled show that takes story-telling to a whole different level...Keith Davis' entertainingly egotistical Odysseus goes through a satisfying transition as the result of his hardships, all of which are caused by his vanity.

...One fact he doesn't learn that's vital to outdoor productions: wear sunscreen. The wide, open spaces where the play is performed do not have shade of any kind. The Shotgun Players thoughtfully provide sunscreen for those who need it. They also provide homemade frozen 'cyclop-sicles' for $1.

There's nothing better than lazing on the grass in a sunny park, picnicking with fruit, bread and cheese and watching a smart spectacle play out before you. On such glorious Bay Area summer days, we all feel like gods and goddesses. It's a difficult thing, then, to absorb what wise old Homer is reminding us: 'Accept your mortality.'

As entertaining as the Shotgun Players' Odyssey is, that's a hard lesson to sell on a beautiful afternoon in the park.