Smart Like a Fox

Ensemble Theatre Company isn’t letting the pandemic interfere with its production schedule.

The popular company, helmed by Jonathan Fox, is presenting five live-streamed performances of the critically acclaimed 90-minute, one-act play An Iliad, with each live performance being aired and viewable on computers, smart TVs, iPads, and iPhones.

Translated by Robert Fagles from Homer’s 3,000-year-old epic poem, The Iliad, playwrights Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare deliver a contemporized and compelling narrative with the use of a single actor and musician.

Crafted around the stories of Achilles and Hector, in a language that is by turns poetic and conversational, An Iliad brilliantly refreshes this world classic.

Taking on the herculean role is John Tufts, who returns to ETC after appearing in The Invisible Hand and the one-man show I Am my Own Wife, for which he deservedly won critical acclaim.

Tufts, a regular with the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival, will be joined by Santa Barbara Symphony cellist Jonathan Flaksman at the New Vic. The show will have minimal stage design, but with creative videography, each of the five performances will be live, not recorded.