Odysseus, Verbrecher. Schauspiel einer Heimkehr () is a play by the Austrian writer Christoph Ransmayr, first performed in 2010. It is based on an episode toward the end of Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus returns to his kingdom and slaughters his wife's suitors, who are called reformers in the play. Odysseus, Verbrecher was commissioned for the Ruhr.2010 campaign as one of six new plays based on the Odyssey.
Background
The Ruhr.2010 campaign was the successful bid to make Germany's Ruhr region the 2010 European Capital of Culture, designated by the European Union. A part of the campaign was the project Odyssey Europa (), where six European authors were commissioned to write a new play based on Homer's Odyssey. The six playwrights were , Péter Nádas, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Christoph Ransmayr, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Enda Walsh. The plays focus on different episodes and were intended to add up as a retelling of the epic. Ransmayr chose to portray the violent side of Odysseus and how he influenced his son Telemachus to also become a killer.
Plot
Odysseus, king of Ithaca, returns to his homeland 20 years after sailing away to fight in the Trojan War. He does not recognise the place, which is littered with garbage, and the first person he encounters on the beach—Athena—also appears alien to him. As three shepherds play a game, the situation on the island is revealed to the audience: power has been usurped by a group of reformers who, led by Antinous, also are suitors of Odysseus' wife, Penelope. When Odysseus encounters the shepherds, they first attack and overpower him, but when they see his tattoo of a skull they recognise it as the royal emblem of Ithaca, understand who he is and explain the situation to him. Odysseus wakes up surrounded by a choir of war cripples and recognises both fallen comrades and enemies he killed among them. The ghosts mock him and make him realise the misery and poverty Ithaca has fallen into. It becomes clear that Odysseus is the only person who can see the cripples, but what they told him about Ithaca was true. Odysseus meets his son Telemachus for the first time since he was an infant. As they talk, Odysseus says he has overcome the war, without mentioning the cripples that still follow him. He tells Telemachus he plans to enter the court disguised and talk sense into the reformers, convinced that his name will be enough to restore order and that his return will be a feast for everybody. The madwoman Eurycleia tells the reformers Antinous, Eurymachus and Amphinomus that Odysseus has returned. They do not believe her, do not recognise Odysseus when they see him and mock him for being dressed in rags. Penelope demands to be left alone with the man, who she immediately recognised as her missing husband. She accuses him of having abandoned his family and argues that he is not the same man as when he left. They are interrupted by Telemachus who says there is unrest between the reformers and an angry mob of people who want to see Odysseus. Against Penelope's protests, Odysseus decides to fight the reformers together with Telemachus, arguing that this is how peace is won. After the battle is won, Odysseus feels content, but now Telemachus, who killed Antinous and Eurymachus, also sees the choir of crippled ghosts. Penelope is horrified and accuses Odysseus of having turned Telemachus into his equal.
Production history
S. Fischer Verlag published Odysseus, Verbrecher as a book in February 2010. It was first performed at the Schauspielhaus Dortmund as the last part of the Odyssey Europa series. Ransmayr's play was directed by and the actors wore papier-mâché masks supposed to make them look like terrorists. The six plays were performed together on 27–28 February, 6–7 March, 13–14 March, 2–3 April and 22–23 May 2010. The first Austrian production was at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg and premiered on 19 March 2015, directed by Robert Pienz and starring Harald Fröhlich as Odysseus.