Futuristic technology breathes new life into ancient heroes

By David Chute

In the surreal virtual universe of "Homer in Cyberspace," the gods of ancient Greece have been deposed, "shrink-wrapped and imprisoned" by a new race of digital/electronic deities known as the iGods. Struggling to return home to his loyal wife, Penelope, the wily war hero Odysseus ("O" for short) has been condemned to wander aimlessly for years, his punishment for blinding the one-eyed bully Sy, iGod son of Belle and Bernie Klops.

You may have noticed that this classic epic poem, which you probably studied in high school, has undergone a few changes on its way to UCLA's Macgowan Hall Little Theater, where modernized simulations of Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus will make their singing and dancing debuts.

That's right. It's a musical, a comic re-mix of "The Odyssey" that has sprung from the wild imagination of Mel Shapiro, professor of theater and Tony Award–winning veteran of the Broadway stage. It will make its world premiere on May 29.

"Homer" is the theater department's 2008 Ray Bolger Musical Theater production. Funded in part by the UCLA Arts Initiative, it's the second innovative collaboration between the Department of Theater and UCLA's Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance (REMAP), following the success of their 2006 sold-out hit, "The Bloggers Project." That show, also written and directed by Shapiro, combined digital media and historical and literary material with content derived, in part, from blogs written by soldiers fighting in Iraq.

Both shows employ the sort of "gaming engine" that is used to create the intuitive interactive environments of today's most popular entertainment products to generate a fluid world of media for a live event. The futuristic technology is a result of work by students and alumni in computer science, animation, cinematography, theater and architecture, led by REMAP executive director Jeff Burke.

"Hades will look and sound like a video game," Shapiro said, "with lots of shooting and people dropping dead and popping up again. The whole video game thing gives the show a style that I never would have thought of otherwise. People ask me what period the play is set in, and I say, 'It's somewhere between 2500 B.C. and 3000 A.D.' It's a cartoon-like hyperworld."

"Homer" features 90 minutes of new music by Professor Roger Bourland, prolific theater and film composer and chair of the Department of Music in the Herb Alpert School of Music. His music evokes both the ancient and the futuristic, combining electronic sounds with stringed instruments — from the banjo to the bouzouki. It's a nod toward the iconic image of Homer as a blind bard singing his epic verses while strumming a lyre.

Bourland was struck by "the sheer variety of different kinds of material Mel [Shapiro] is creating" in his latest work. "We have crazy comedy, sexy sequences, intellectual stuff and dumb stuff, and emotional passages about love and fidelity that will have people crying by the end of it."

Bourland and Burke strongly endorse Shapiro's view that what makes "The Odyssey" a perfect vehicle for a stylized adaptation is the universality of its themes.

"When I was writing it," Shapiro said, "and especially when I was writing the lyrics, I came to understand that 'The Odyssey' is very much about a father and son, and a husband and wife who are separated, and how they feel about that. It ends up being about aging and accepting who you are."

"Homer" runs through June 7. Tickets are $15-$17. For a schedule or to purchase tickets, go to www.tickets.ucla.edu or call (310) 825-2101.