What ails The Cure at Troy?

The production directed by Tina Landau features a stunning set and lighting design, but I just couldn't connect with the show — and I love Heaney's work.

The story is simple enough. Ancient Greeks return to an island where they had left the injured Philoctetes because they had grown tired of the smell of his wounded foot and his shrieks from pain. (I'm simplifying here.) They return to get his special bow and arrows so they can defeat the Trojans. Not surprisingly, Philoctetes has a few complaints to unload.

Heaney is the English language's greatest living poet. I like his poetry because it is very accessible. He tells stories; the artifice sneaks up on you.

It's just the opposite with this production. It seemed arty and inaccessible. Though it starts strongly with a very clever use of the chorus, the production lost me during most of the speeches by Odysseus (played by Hans Altwies).

It's hard to know what went wrong here. My Crosscut colleague, Thomas May, has a detailed commentary. My general rule is, if the audience can't track the speechmaking, it's the director's fault.

• O. Casey Corr writes the Mudville blog for Crosscut. He is a Seattle-based writer who previously worked for The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer and now works at Seattle University as director of strategic communications. He worked as a senior advisor to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, ran for Seattle City Council in 2005, and recently taught business journalism at the University of Washington. You can e-mail him at casey.corr@crosscut.com.