One-man ‘Iliad’ an epic tour de force

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Timothy Edward Kane stars in “An Iliad” at Court Theatre.

Updated: December 23, 2011 8:05AM

In one of the most explosive, altogether breathtaking sequences in “An Iliad” — and there are an astounding number of them during the course of this mind-blowing, 90-minute Court Theatre production — actor Timothy Edward Kane, giving what might surely be the performance of his lifetime, stands in place and gazes out at us with the crazed demeanor of someone who has reached the breaking point. He then proceeds, clearly but maniacally, to catalogue all of the major wars that have shaken various parts of the globe throughout history.

The monumental list begins with several of the bloody conflicts that plagued the ancient world. And this makes perfect sense, for “An Iliad” — the uncannily brilliant adaptation of Homer’s epic created by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson (from the colloquial translation by Robert Fagles), and staged to shattering effect by Charles Newell — is a recounting of the Trojan War, one of the most fabled of all those conflicts. And in two of its most ferocious combatants, Achilles (the Greek warrior), and Hector (the Trojan general), can be found the embodiment of the escalating savagery, orgasmic frenzy and pure insanity that drive all wars until there is nothing left on either side but ashes and exhaustion and desolation.

Though “An Iliad” is a one-man show, it seems ludicrous to refer to it as such. For in the role of The Poet, Kane becomes more than the storyteller, historian, witness and high priest who sets everything in motion with an incantation in ancient Greek. He is a war correspondent, photo-journalist and filmmaker of sorts, whose interpretive gifts are so extraordinary that he has no need of a cast of thousands, or an armada of ships, or an army of horses or a 3-D camera. His voice , body and stormy emotional weather alone tell us everything we need to know as he brings the battlefield carnage to life, conjures the eerie glow of the armor fashioned for Achilles, describes the way Hector’s skull was demolished by being dragged behind a chariot, and captures a grieving widow and desperate father.

With his shaved head, piercing eyes, powerhouse physicality and scorching intelligence, Kane is hypnotic — aided and abetted at every turn by Newell’s galvanic direction that uses light, water and sand to stunning effect. Also hypnotic is the script by O’Hare (the former Chicago actor) and Peterson (herself a director), that so brilliantly meshes past and present calamity, with touches of the most caustic dark humor suddenly shifting into unimaginable pathos. Their vision allows us to see the faces of 18-year-old soldiers plucked from the villages of Greece and the beautiful city of Troy morph into those of the similarly young men from Nebraska and New York who have ended up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq during the past decade.

Todd Rosenthal’s magnificent set takes the form of a steep, battered stone rampart that variously suggests a city wall, a temple and a tomb, with an overhang of cloth that conjures the sails of warships. And Keith Parham’s cinematic lighting is a magical language all its own, perfectly in synch with the seamless transformations of actor and story here.

In the best of all possible worlds, this Court Theatre production would sail out on a grand global tour — playing to audiences in war zones, public squares and the halls of power alike. In the meantime, Kane should revel in the standing ovation his performance generates and take more than a single modest bow for what is very close to a superhuman feat.