The Odyssey - a triumph of memory and imagination (From Ledbury Reporter)

The Odyssey - a triumph of memory and imagination

8:50am Monday 14th July 2008

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It was a long, challenging but enjoyable ten days at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, which closed on Sunday - most suitably - with a recital of "The Odyssey".Bard Hugh Lupton brought the epic "Beowulf" to life last year and this time it was Homer's classic of travel, self-knowledge and strange adventures.Beside him on the stage of the Market Theatre was Daniel Morden.He was the voice of Odysseus when the hero had to speak in the first person.He has a haunted and thoughtful look, in contrast to grey-haired Lupton's remarkable stage presence and resonant tones.Lupton is the perfect narrator, the Homer figure who relishes every remembered line.Morden is more like an method actor, - someone who enters into the drama and horror of the tale and appears to be visibly shaken.Both men achieved an astonishing feat of memory, without text and without prompts, and the show was thrilling from start to finish.It was a high point of the festival and I was sorry when it was over, because two hours had simply flown by.

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