Odysseus is a retelling of the Odyssey in Hip-hop and Spoken Word Poetry with a live orchestra and choir created by Greek-Australian poet, Luka Lesson.

Hi, my name is Luka Haralampou, otherwise known as poet Luka Lesson. I have 20 years of experience writing and performing poetry and rap music. I have performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, performed at the Sydney Opera House, published multiple books and my poetry is studied on curriculums nationawide. I have also collaborated with Greek Hip-hop outfit, Active Member.

My family comes from both Rhodes Island on my father's side, and the village of Diakopto in the region of Achaia in the Peloponese on my mother’s. Yes - same region of Achaia also includes the island of Ithaki. ‘Achaeans’ is the term Homer uses to refer to Odysseus and his men in The Odyssey.

This is where my family are from.

I see my work as the continuation of my ancestors.

And a continuation of the work of the ‘rhapsodes’ - the poets who performed the original Odyssey in front of crowds in Amphitheatres across the Ancient Greek world.

Project History

I started working on Odysseus in 2016, when a composer from the Sydney conservatorium of music James Humberstone approached me for a chance at a collaboration.

I immediately thought of the scale and epic nature of The Odyssey and how that aligns with the epic experience of witnessing an orchestra play live.

I also thought about how Hollywood depicts my people, in films like 'Troy' and '300', major productions without a single Greek-heritage actor, writer, or creator on the entore production.

So, I decided to take on the biggest story we have, the greatest story in history - The Odyssey.

So we got to work.

Many months of creative labour later and with more collaborators coming on board during the process, we performed the first work-in-progress showing in Sydney at the Conservatorium in June of 2016 in two performances for the general public.

The response was electric, the show was something special.

That was ten years ago.

Soon after we held a successful fundraiser, much like this one, and that allowed my team and I to take the idea of the show and work on it further, massaging into place some costuming, video elements and adaptations of the script - and resulting in the 2018 showing that we performed only for industry guests at Footscray Arts Centre in Melbourne - with great success.

This Odysseus Preview video was filmed that night

Great artists and theatre-makers were there, included the great Paul Kelly, who loved the show and supplied with with a support letter soon afterwards.

> Enter COVID, shut downs, postponments and the rest <

Why now?

With COVID behind us, and the Hollywood Odyssey remake upon us, I have been reminded of why I started this journey - because I believe we, as Greeks, should be leading the charge when it comes to representing our stories on the world stage.

It is time to reignite the journey of Odysseus, but as a piece of theatre that is both written by and performed an artist of Greek Heritage in the leading role.

The Hollywood production, for all its flaws, has placed the journey of Odysseus front and centre on the world stage and in the minds of people worldwide. And people are now more hungry than ever for authentic voices to bring this and other stories like it, into existence in powerful and creative ways.

What will we do with this money?

The vision from here is to add to the already 65-minute long production, adding another 25-minutes to have a complete 90-minute theatre production to arrive to premiere in 2027/2028.

This will include collaborating with musicians at Seikilo Museum in Thessaloniki, who are experts in the recreating and playing ancient musical instruments which they call 'living artefacts'.

And to work with our director and composer in a week-long development process to further develop the script and theatrical details.

The full production wil cost somewhere upwards of $100,000AUD, which is not expensive for a project of this calibre.

This fundraiser is aimed at getting us to the next stage of development and to prove without a doubt that their is a hunger from international audiences for an authentic and Greek-centric Odyssey.

The Dream

My dream is to premiere the show in Australia in the Sydney Opera House (who have already expressed their interest in the project) and to then take it to Greece where it belongs, to be perform in an Ancient Greek Amphitheatre such as Epidavros or the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

I appreciate your time and donations in making this dream come true, and if you are of Greek heritage whether in Greece or in the diaspora, I pray that this project with reach you, in your city, once we have acheived our initial aims.

May Odysseus arrive to Ithaki, again.