Although I didn't get a chance to see the Court Theatre's remount of their 2011 hit, An Iliad, I thought I'd share my review of the 2013 remount.
The remount of the Court Theatre’s 2011 hit, An Iliad, is still amazing! Timothy Edward Kane’s performance as the Poet, a man who tells and retells the story of the Trojan War, is a ‘tour de force’. If you missed it last time – and even if you saw it then - make sure you see An Iliad this go round, it’s a 4 Spotlight play.
The Poet is kind of like an aging rock star – his song about the Trojan War is the reason his fans show up for his concerts – but he’s getting very tired of singing that same song and his audiences are getting smaller and smaller.
He gives the impression that he’d love to share a couple of tall tales with you, but he’s stuck with this one. Somehow he makes you think that even though it’s the oldest story in the book you’re hearing it for the first time here. Heroes with issues, gods and goddesses who get ticked off and meddle 
in human affairs, the face that launched a thousand ships, they’re all the same to him – part of the story, As most good storytellers do, he often pauses to interject his own opinions.
In order to make the whole Trojan War more human (if war can ever be called human), the Poet concentrates on Hector (prince of Troy, son of Priam, brother of Paris) and Achilles (Greek hero), kind of a point-counterpoint of angry deeds followed by swift retribution, both driven by inordinate amounts of testosterone.
One of the most gripping moments in the play occurs when the Poet somberly lists just about every war ever fought since the Greeks, including the modern conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
The set looks a lot like an abandoned swimming pool, which did work into the story in a strange kind of way. In an interesting illustration of his point, the Poet uses the sand pouring down from an overhead pipe to explain the progress of a particular episode in the war. I think an abandoned pool is more post-apocalypse than early Greek, but it could symbolize the walls of Troy, so I guess it did make some kind of sense.
An Iliad runs through June 29th at the Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago. Performances are Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays at 7:30 pm; Saturdays & Sundays at 2:00 and 7:30. Tickets: Evenings $100; Matinees $125. Performances on June 8, 15, and 22 featuring Jason Huysman: $75.00Free parking is available in the parking garage on the corner of 55th and Ellis, adjacent to the Court. FYI (773) 753-4472 or www.CourtTheatre.org.