The Rage of Achilles

Warriors greedy for glory and the wealth of foreign land; an arrogant king, reckless with the lives of his soldiers; ordinary men capable of extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice; a lust for vengeance; a city ablaze; men cut down in the prime of youth; the wails of widows and parents. . . 2,700 years have not altered the great themes of war that Homer captured in The Iliad.

92nd Street Y presents The Rage of Achilles — the world premiere of Kathryn Walker’s adaptation for the stage of Robert Fagles’ translation of The Iliad. Kathryn Walker directs a cast that includes Kate Burton, George Grizzard, Paul Hecht, Mary Beth Hurt, Larry Pine, and Keith David in this staged reading with a minimalist set. Robert Black of Bang on a Can performs original music. Walker’s 90-minute adaptation of Homer’s great war epic draws on selections of The Iliad that she considers “the essential action of the poem: the rage of Achilles that leads inexorably to the death of Hector.”