Lies Over the Ocean: A Twentieth-Century One-Act Odyssey

6M, 6W (+ a variety of CHORUS MEMBERS and PARTY GOERS)–An unusual mid-Twentieth Century retelling of Book 9 of the Odyssey, Lies Over the Ocean opens with a distraught man named McBride who is on a journey in which finds something much larger than that which he is seeking. In an almost supernatural turn of events, he meets a group of characters whose direction leads him to an island occupied by a … one-eyed psychopath. On his way, though, McBride engages with a fictionalized version of a young man who would become President of the United States and, eventually, with a beautiful ingenue who will play a major part in this politician’s life, as well as in Hollywood. McBride fights to outwit his adversary and even his own situation in hopes of finding the peace that lies over the ocean. This rewriting of history explores the could have been, the may have been, and the seems to have been as it looks at life through the lens of ancient literature, the very stories that help define our culture.