Lorna Irvine has fallen in love with the Fringe production.
This is a flawless piece of work, and possibly even better on second viewing.
The Paper Cinema's The Odyssey (*****), comprising puppeteers Nicholas Rawling and Imogen Charleston alongside multi-instrumentalists Christopher Reed, Quinta (who, wonderfully, switches from violin to saw at one stage) and Hazel Mills, have collaborated with Battersea Arts Centre on this, their first feature length film, bringing an explosion of ideas to delight the senses.
Forget every adaptation of Homer's Odyssey that you may have seen—this is a fresh, irreverent take on the tale, so no blustering, Brian Blessed type as Odysseus but rather a noble but vulnerable man lost at sea. Son Telemachus is a disaffected stoner on a motorbike seeking his father after twenty years of bottled-up angst. Fair Penelope (wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus) is a feminist icon, fighting off louche crocodile suitors with cocktails—she can wield a sword with the best of them. She will find her true love. And Helen of Troy is a billboard pin-up. Why? Because, suffice to say, she's worth it.
All of the action is in beautifully illustrated 2D animation, reminiscent of Jean Cocteau's drawings. The various complicated set pieces, motion and backdrops are projected onto a big screen using multiple cameras.
From time to time, old-school radio F/X are deployed, with Mills crunching on gravel or Reed scrunching bubble wrap into a mic to evoke a great fire.
And the band can, and do, play absolutely anything live: the score absolutely shimmers with jazz, flamenco-infused swoops, Nick Cave-style thunderous murder ballads...even a tinkly, cute rendition of Jackie Wilson's Higher and Higher at the finale.
Exquisite from start to finish. If you don't want to weep with joy, you're officially dead inside.
Run ended.
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