Skip NavigationMenu

Postponed- OMEROS

Omeros webisite banner new

I sang our wide country, the Caribbean sea

Like Philoctete’s wound, this language carries its cure.

Helen is pregnant, but doesn’t know who the father is. Desperate to impress her, Hector leaves his fishing community and moves to the big city, while Achille, heartbroken, is taken on a spiritual journey to his homeland. Meanwhile, Philoctete spends his days in the NO PAIN CAFE, longing for his ancient wound to heal.

Nobel Prize winning poet, Derek Walcott, reimagines the characters of Homer’s Iliad as fishermen on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. Set against a backdrop of encroaching tourism and commercialism, this epic drama explores the community’s historical wounds of slavery and the redemptive power of culture and heritage.

Adapted and directed by Elayce Ismail  (Nanjing, Shakespeare’s Globe), and developed with Paterson Joseph, Walcott’s masterpiece is beautifully re-imagined for the Gate.

Get Tickets

Cast & CREATIVES

Loading...
Loading...
Paterson Joseph – Associate Dramaturg
Paterson Joseph is a writer and performer. He previously performed at the Gate Theatre in The Emperor Jones (also National Theatre). His other theatre credits include Whale, Saint Joan, Royal Hunt for the Sun and Elmina's Kitchen (National Theatre), Julius Caesar, Don Juan, Troilus and Cressida, Love's Labour’s Lost, King Lear and The Pretenders (RSC). He created, wrote and performed in Sancho: An Act of Remembrance (Wilton’s Music Hall and US tour). Television credits include Noughts & Crosses, Timeless, Rellik, The Hollow Crown, The Leftovers, Babylon, Law and Order UK, Peep Show, Doctor Who, Hustle, No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, Safe House and You, Me and the Apocalypse.
Read Bio
Elayce Ismail – Adaptor & Director – Chorus

Elayce Ismail was awarded the JP Morgan Award for Emerging Directors 2014/2015, under which she was Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio and directed Andrew Whaley’s The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco at the Gate Theatre. She was co-founder/Artistic Director of Offstage Theatre from 2005 – 2009 and trained at LISPA.

Direction includes: The Iphigenia Quartet, The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco (Gate Theatre); Schools Theatre Production, Simpatico (Young Vic); The Lost Ring (NT/Deutsches Theater Berlin); Treasure Island: Making a Scene, Alfred Fagon Award: GIRLS, Black Plays Series readings (NT); Struggle (Talawa Firsts, London & Bristol Somali Festivals); Bed & Breakfast (Brighton Fringe Festival & tour). Associate/assistant direction: The Virtues of Things (Royal Opera House); The Sound of Yellow, A Season in the Congo (Young Vic); Coming Home (Arcola Theatre). Puppetry: Dr Korczak’s Example (Unicorn Theatre); Fast Burn (Kneehigh/NYT). Performance: The Magic Flute (Complicite/ENO); Ring-a-Ding-Ding (Oily Cart); In A Pickle, (Oily Cart/RSC). Elayce will be directing Chorus for The Iphigenia Quartet.
Read Bio

The Gate’s 2019/20 season is generously supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and the London Community Foundation.

Jerwood Designers is supported by Jerwood Arts.

Cockayne logo high res   Lcf logo mono cmyk   Jerwood arts black

Join the conversation

Loading...

I sang our wide country, the Caribbean sea

Like Philoctete’s wound, this language carries its cure.

Helen is pregnant, but doesn’t know who the father is. Desperate to impress her, Hector leaves his fishing community and moves to the big city, while Achille, heartbroken, is taken on a spiritual journey to his homeland. Meanwhile, Philoctete spends his days in the NO PAIN CAFE, longing for his ancient wound to heal.

Nobel Prize winning poet, Derek Walcott, reimagines the characters of Homer’s Iliad as fishermen on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. Set against a backdrop of encroaching tourism and commercialism, this epic drama explores the community’s historical wounds of slavery and the redemptive power of culture and heritage.

Adapted and directed by Elayce Ismail  (Nanjing, Shakespeare’s Globe), and developed with Paterson Joseph, Walcott’s masterpiece is beautifully re-imagined for the Gate.

The Gate Theatre Company is a company limited by guarantee registered in England & Wales No. 1495543 – Charity No. 280278