The Odyssey

Feb 11, 2025 - Mar 16, 2025
Loeb Drama Center
Run Time: 3 hours, including two intermissions

Run Time

3 hours, including two intermissions

Information
Ticket Offers
Photos & Videos
Press Coverage
Explore
Related Events
Credits

Learn more:

This event has passed

Clever, gorgeous, and superbly acted! Hamill’s crafted something special, and I’m changed.

WBUR

Acclaimed writer and adaptor Kate Hamill (Sense & Sensibility, Vanity Fair, Dracula) turns a contemporary lens on Homer’s Odyssey in this new play that reimagines the stories of both Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, and asks how we can learn to embrace healing and forgiveness in order to end cycles of violence and revenge.

This production contains sex, violence (including death of children and animals), and references to sexual assault, as well as fog, haze, strobe, and flashing lights. Recommended for ages 14+.

By Kate Hamill
Based on the epic poem by Homer
Directed by Shana Cooper

Notable dates

Opening Night: 2/18
Member Night: 2/27
ASL Interpreted: 3/5 at 7PM & 3/8 at 1:30PM
Audio Described: 3/12 at 7PM & 3/16 at 1:30PM
Open Captioned: 3/12 at 7PM & 3/16 at 1:30PM
Sensory Inclusive: 3/9 at 1:30PM

Listen to Pre-show Audio Description

Production Sponsors of The Odyssey

Alan Jones and Ashley Garrett

Development Support
The Bob and Alison Murchison New Work Development Fund

Accessibility

Find out about our theater’s accessibility.

Plan Your Visit

Information on getting to the theater, local restaurants, and the Loeb Drama Center, including restrooms and concessions.

Ticketing Policies

Learn about our ticketing policies and discounts, including for seniors, EBT cardholders, students, and audience members under 25.

Content Key

Language 3 out of 5
Violence 4 out of 5
Sexuality 3 out of 5
Substance Use 1 out of 5

Ticket Offers

All Discounts

Standard tickets start at $35, and discounts are available to students and ticket-buyers under the age of 25, Blue Star families, EBT card holders, seniors, Harvard faculty and staff, and others.

More Info

Take Five

All Performances (Except FEB 18)
$5 Tickets

Take Five invites community members who feel attending theater is financially out of reach or want to take a chance on something new to experience the A.R.T. with a $5 ticket. These tickets are sold out for The Odyssey.

More Info

All Performances (Except FEB 18)
$5 Tickets

More Info

Harvard ArtsThursdays

FEB 20 at 7PM
Free with RSVP

Free tickets will be available to the performance on February 20 as part of Harvard ArtsThursdays, a university-wide initiative supported by Harvard University Committee on the Arts. An RSVP is required for one or two tickets as space is limited. On the day of the performance, tickets will be distributed at the Loeb Drama Center to the RSVP list on a first-come, first-served basis.

More Info and RSVP

FEB 20 at 7PM
Free with RSVP

More Info and RSVP

Photos & Videos

Wayne T. Carr stands center stage lit in a blue light holding a rope above his head as Benjamin Bonenfant and Jason O’Connell pull back on it from behind. Alejandra Escalante and Nike Imoru stand above a square building watching, as does Kate Hamill standing to the right of it.

Press Coverage

Reviews

Wayne T. Carr stands to one side of a projection of a giant yellow eyeball, which watches over Kate Hamill, Alejandra Escalante, and Nike Imoru who are dressed as sheep.

WBUR

With delightful direction by Shana Cooper, Hamill’s version enlivens the classic tale with edgy dialogue and lots of humor and makes a centuries-old tale approachable for new audiences.

Read full article

With delightful direction by Shana Cooper, Hamill’s version enlivens the classic tale with edgy dialogue and lots of humor and makes a centuries-old tale approachable for new audiences.

Read full article

Kate Hamill in moss-covered blouse and dirt on her skin stands behind Wayne T. Carr with her hands on his head. He sits on a low platform in a dirty, dark blue henley shirt holding a flask.

Joyce’s Choices

Kate Hamill’s refreshed and feminized adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic poem is immediately exciting, funny, horrifying, and accessible, losing none of its symbolic and psychological richness.

Read full article

Kate Hamill’s refreshed and feminized adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic poem is immediately exciting, funny, horrifying, and accessible, losing none of its symbolic and psychological richness.

Read full article

Andrus Nichols in a dark teal gown stands to the left with a worried expression on her face, while Wayne T. Carr in dark clothing stands on the right looking over his shoulder under a dim red light.

METRMag

A spectacular reinvented look at one of the most epic tales ever told. A journey well worth taking.

Read full article

A spectacular reinvented look at one of the most epic tales ever told. A journey well worth taking.

Read full article

Wayne T. Carr kneels before a gold bowl of water to wash blood off his hands. Alejandra Escalante, Kate Hamill, and Nike Imoru, dressed in white, dirtied robes, stand behind him and watch.

Stage and Cinema

A thrilling, thought-provoking Odyssey that refuses to simply mythologize its hero, opting instead to question the very nature of heroism itself.

Read full article

A thrilling, thought-provoking Odyssey that refuses to simply mythologize its hero, opting instead to question the very nature of heroism itself.

Read full article

Keshav Moodliar, Chris Thorn, and other masked actors stand in red-tinged fog behind Wayne T. Carr, who holds a long dagger by his side and stares at Nike Imoru crouched on the ground.

The Theater Mirror

Exciting, smart, and thought-provoking. Clever staging and an excellent ensemble.

Read full article

Exciting, smart, and thought-provoking. Clever staging and an excellent ensemble.

Read full article

New England Theatre Geek

The Odyssey is a grand epic, decisively feminist and unhinged in the best ways.

Read full article

The Odyssey is a grand epic, decisively feminist and unhinged in the best ways.

Read full article

Tufts Daily

Hamill breathes new life into an ancient story and challenges us to reconsider the stories we tell—and who gets to be the hero.

Read full article

Hamill breathes new life into an ancient story and challenges us to reconsider the stories we tell—and who gets to be the hero.

Read full article

A shadow of a giant stands over the actors, who are grouped to one side underneath its legs.

Cambridge Day

Hamill’s Odyssey shines!

Read full article

Hamill’s Odyssey shines!

Read full article

Features

The Boston Globe

Penelope takes the spotlight at ART’s ‘The Odyssey’

“It’s a play about how you survive in a civilization which has changed, and when you have changed,” [Kate] Hamill said.
“How do we rebuild? What does that look like?,” [Shana] Cooper said. “That’s the journey of this play.”

Read full article

Seen in the gap between other people, Kate Hamill sits at a table in a large grey knit scarf and opens her script.

Boston Herald

Kate Hamill gives ‘Odyssey’ a new twist

“When I started this play, I thought it was about the fall of a civilization, but it’s about how you survive,” [Hamill] said. “Part of why we try to find joy and humor and hope in this story, while not looking away from the violence and trauma, is because we find that life does keep going.”

Read full article

The Harvard Gazette

Star of new ‘Odyssey’ adaptation? Your imagination.

“What I hope the audience takes away from this show is a larger vision about the myths we create,” [puppet director and designer Kate] Brehm said. “We have the power to make our own stories.”

Read full article

“What I hope the audience takes away from this show is a larger vision about the myths we create,” [puppet director and designer Kate] Brehm said. “We have the power to make our own stories.”

Read full article

CBS Boston

Carpentry team brings stories to life with their set designs

“All these people have a passion. They’re all really invested and want to do good work,” [said technical consultant Chris Swetcky.] “It shows with the sets and what comes on stage.”

Read full article

“All these people have a passion. They’re all really invested and want to do good work,” [said technical consultant Chris Swetcky.] “It shows with the sets and what comes on stage.”

Read full article

Carlo Albán in black glasses and a teal T-shirt speaks while sitting at a table, while Andrus Nichols in beige on the right watches him.

El Planeta

“La Odisea” resuena como una reflexión de la historia del inmigrante

“La historia de Odiseo es la historia del inmigrante,” afirmó [actor Carlo] Albán. “Es un viaje interminable, la búsqueda del hogar, el trauma de la travesía. Es la sensación de ser un náufrago en tierras desconocidas.”

Read full article

Shana Cooper, Kate Hamill, Steph Paul, and Jason O’Connell sit a table in front of their script binders.

Cambridge Day

Homer wrote The Odyssey; Hamill rewrote it.

Hamill says workshops for the epic never fail to draw parallels to contemporary conflicts—as long as there is violence in the world, the Odyssey will be relevant… “There’s lots of swearing in this play, there’s sex in this play, there’s certainly violence in this play, because I want it to feel real to people who are in combat,” Hamill said.

Read full article

Explore

A Note from Kate Hamill

I believe that the classics shape us, as much as we shape them and that they need not be museum pieces. Particularly in theater, we have a responsibility to re-tell and re-examine these stories for new generations.

Nike Imoru sitting at a table in a black-and-white plaid shirt and silvery-gray box braids smiles broadly, with Kate Hamill in a large knit scarf sits on the left.

Kate Hamill’s Odyssey and the Odyssean Tradition

In many ways, the Odyssey is better thought of as a tradition than as a text…the story of Odysseus’s wanderings and return must have been retold and recomposed countless times before being fixed in writing.

The cover of Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong; the cover of Circe by Madeline Miller; and a still from Big Fish.

Developmental Workshop of The Odyssey

Behind the Scenes
OCT 19, 2023

After a developmental workshop, actors present a free reading of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of The Odyssey.

More Info

Behind the Scenes
OCT 19, 2023

After a developmental workshop, actors present a free reading of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of The Odyssey.

More Info

Mosaic of Odysseus tied to the mast of his ship.

The Odyssey in Ulysses

Civically Speaking
FEB 28, 2022

Explore how Kate Hamill’s new adaptation of The Odyssey is in dialogue with both the original epic poem and James Joyce’s landmark modernist novel, Ulysses.

More Info

Civically Speaking
FEB 28, 2022

Explore how Kate Hamill’s new adaptation of The Odyssey is in dialogue with both the original epic poem and James Joyce’s landmark modernist novel, Ulysses.

More Info

Kate Hamill, Chukwudi Iwuji, and Alejandra Escalante

Virtual Reading of The Odyssey

Behind the Scenes
JAN 12, 2021

Writer and performer Kate Hamill shares a scene from her new play, discusses reexamining classic texts through a feminist lens, and explains why she feels she has always been meant to adapt Homer’s epic.

More Info

Behind the Scenes
JAN 12, 2021

More Info

Essential Question

If you’ve gone through something traumatic, can you ever go back to who you were? Can you ever go back home?

A.R.T. leads with inquiry and asks questions in a spirit of brave curiosity in a never-ending journey of learning and growth. For each production, the creative team, company, and Engagement team develop an Essential Question to guide work in the rehearsal room, onstage, and for engaging with audiences.