AN ILIAD

The power of Homer’s age-old story is unleashed onto a modern audience in a contemporary retelling, created by acclaimed director Lisa Peterson and Tony Award® winning actor Denis O’Hare

A spirited and enthralling performance, the familiar tale of gods and goddesses, undying love and endless battle becomes a breathtaking tour-de-force. This sweeping account of humanity’s un shakeable attraction to violence, destruction and chaos begs the question: has anything really changed since the Trojan War?

About Homer’s Coat

Denis O'Hare and Lisa Peterson are founding members of Homer's Coat - a creative collective that explores foundational literature. An actor and a director respectively, they both develop, write and edit the pieces they make together. The creative process differs according to subject matter but the lens through which they view the theatrical medium makes for unique, energetic, imaginative performative experiences. Together they created the stage piece, An Iliad over a period of 5 years, utilizing video, video transcriptions, improvisation, original music, and diligent research.

Currently they are developing a piece based on the Bible entitled The Good Book, commissioned by the Court Theatre in Chicago. The Good Book tells the story of the chaotic birth of the Christian Bible and how it came to be the most influential text in all of human history.

An Iliad has received multiple awards including the Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago), 5 Craig Noel Awards (San Diego), Gregory Award (Seattle), Drama Desk Nomination (New York), OBIE Award (New York), and The Lucille Lortel Award (New York). For more information, click here.

Lisa Peterson

Lisa Peterson is a two-time Obie winning director and writer. Her works include An Iliad, written with Denis O’Hare (NYTW, OBIE and Lortel Awards); The Good Book (co-written with O’Hare, Court Theater and Berkeley Rep); The Waves (adapted from Virginia Woolf with composer David Bucknam, NYTW) and Odyssey (adapted from Emily Wilson’s translation for The Acting Company). In addition to lots of classic plays around the country, Peterson has directed the premiere of new works by Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Jose Rivera, Donald Margulies, Chay Yew, Luis Alfaro, Naomi Wallace and many, many others. Most recently she directed the premiere of Doug Wright’s Good Night, Oscar on Broadway. She has been the Associate Director at Berkeley Rep, Center Theatre Group, and La Jolla Playhouse. She is a recent recipient of the Gordon Davidson Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Denis O’Hare

Denis O’Hare is the co-creator of the award-winning solo performance play, An Iliad, written with Lisa Peterson. Their second play, The Good Book, premiered at Court Theatre in Chicago and was subsequently produced at Berkeley Rep. O’Hare has appeared numerous times on Broadway in Cabaret, Inherit The Wind, Sweet Charity, Assassins and more. Off-Broadway credits include The Devils and Vienna: Lusthaus at New York Theatre Workshop; Into The Woods, Helen, and Take Me Out at the Public (NYSF). A prolific film and TV actor, O’Hare appeared in True Blood, American Horror Story, The Good Wife, Big Little Lies, The Proposal, Michael Clayton, Late Night, and Swallow, among others. His screenplay, The Parting Glass, was made into a movie directed by Stephen Moyer. He is currently developing a TV series that he hopes will shoot in Paris where he lives with his husband, Hugo, and son, Declan.

Brian Ellingsen

Double Bassist Brian Ellingsen’s playing has been hailed as “shocking and evocative” by the Philadelphia Enquirer, and The New York Times has described him as “coaxing an amazing variety of sounds from his instrument.” As a soloist he has been featured at the Spoleto Festival USA, and New Music Hartford. As a chamber musician he has been a member of Ensemble ACJW, and is a standing member of Le Train Bleu, The Declassified, and the Heavy Hands quartet. As an orchestral musician Brian has performed as principle of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, as well as principle of Gotham Chamber Opera, and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. Brian holds a Bachelors degree from the Hartt School, and a Masters from Yale.

Creative Team

Denis O’Hare, Writer and Performer

Lisa Peterson, Writer and Director

Brian Ellingsen, Bassist

Rachel Hauck, Scenic Designer

Marina Draghici, Costume Designer

Scott Zeilinski, Lighting Designer

Mark Bennet, Composer/Sound Designer

Robert Fagles, translator for Homer’s Illiad

Performance History

Seattle Repertory Theatre (Seattle, WA)
McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, NJ)
New York Theatre Workshop (New York)
State University of NY (Purchase, NY)
The Broad Stage (Santa Monica, CA)
Perth Festival (Perth, Australia)
Adelaide Festival (Adelaide, Australia)
Wellington Festival (Wellington, New Zealand)
Scottsdale PAC (Scottsdale, AZ)
Clarice Smith PAC (College Park, MD)
Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
Williams College (Williamstown, MA)
Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans, LA)
Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (Cairo, Egypt)
Santiago A Mil Festival (Santiago, Chile)*
NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center (UAE)
Sibiu Festival International Theatre Festival (Sibiu, Romania)
Great Theatre of China Theater Festival (Shanghai, China)
Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, SC)

An Iliad was originally produced by Seattle Repertory Theatre (Jerry Manning Producing Artistic Director; Benjamin Moore, Managing Director). It was subsequently produced by McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, NJ (Emily Mann, Artistic Director; Timothy J. Shields, Managing Director; Mara Isaacs, Producing Director).

An Iliad was originally developed as part of the New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspects Program, Off-Broadway premiere produced by New York Theatre Workshop (Jim Nicola, Artistic Director; William Russo, Managing Director) in 2012.

An Iliad was developed in part with the assistance of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program.

An Iliad is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York

*This engagement is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Pure theater: shocking, glorious, primal and deeply satisfying.”

What People Are Saying

“The strength of AN ILIAD resides in the combination of a naturally exciting narrative and the engaged, virtuosic performance of...Mr. O’Hare...a supple, gifted and engaging performer.”

— Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“With the article ‘an’ proposing but a single contribution to the diversity of Iliads, co-writer/performer O’Hare and his artistic team have distinguished their oft-told story amongst its many retellings simply as the moving and thoroughly personal investiture of the unique human who appears on the stage. How incredibly powerful this work of theatre is as a result.”