the preteen likes The Odyssey

3 act epic at the A.R.T.

“I like this play.”

He whispered it at the beginning of the second intermission. I thought he might. He has, of course, read many versions of the Odyssey. He knows the story very well. In my experience, kids are always a little miffed if you leave out their favorite part of a book; otherwise, though, they are a very happy audience for retellings of stories they already know.

In fact, I think they prefer to be told something they already know. Easier to follow for a crowd that simply hasn’t lived long enough to get all of the jokes.

The 9 year old to my right “whispered” the characters he recognized when he would figured it out - the Titans (pronounced tie-tans, with equal emphasis on each syllable), Penelope (pronounced pen- elope…please don’t correct him, that’s my favorite, he’ll put it together soon enough), and Cyclops (be creative with the pronunciation here, he did it different every time).

For equality sake I will mention the 11 year old that was sitting four seats away - miser…