REVIEWS

The following are critics' reviews of the 2015 production by Commonwealth Classic Theatre Company of RAGE OF ACHILLES, the play upon which the novel THE RAGE AT TROY is based.

“In Rage of Achilles” Paul Parente has written a fire-breather, full of myth and heroes, battle and bloodshed, cries for justice and the laments that follow…Parente’s prose often sparkles…”—Jim Rutter—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Paul Parente’s gripping Rage of Achilles…while set in the time of the Trojan War and alluding to many of The Iliad’s key events, is not a translation or adaptation. Instead, it’s a fresh retelling, doing for Homer what Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead does for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Though Rage of Achilles is often verbally witty and brisk, it also reveals real war in all its brutality.”—Mark Kofta—Philadelphia City Paper

“Oh, the mortals are restless! Achilles the Greek is furious because his boss, Agamemnon, has made grave mistakes in war and women…Great warriors all, in a tremendously bloody war. And it started over love for a woman. It’s all there, in “Rage of Achilles,” a bold, clever…world premiere being produced by Commonwealth Classic Theater Company…”—Howard Shapiro—on PBS, WHYY, Philadelphia

“Taking his title from the opening lines of Homer’s Iliad (ca. 750 BC), playwright Paul Parente explores the events, emotions, and moral dilemmas from the last days of the decade-long Trojan War in RAGE OF ACHILLES…The millennia-old themes, derived from one of the greatest epics in world literature, are given a provocative, smart, sometimes absurdist, and sometimes horrific re-envisioning from the worms-eye perspective of two ancient Greek spies faced with life-and-death decisions…There’s a lot going on here, and while a basic knowledge of Homer’s classic tale and characters that inspired RAGE OF ACHILLES is useful, you don’t have to be a scholar of ancient history to get its message loud and clear. Interweaving Homeric-style verse with contemporary American vernacular, and passages of obviously ridiculous comedy with episodes of shockingly heinous violence, Parente’s original script—this is not an adaptation of the Iliad–emphasizes the universal absurdity and tragedy of war at any time, be it Antiquity or the present.”—Debra Miller--Phindie