In Greek legend, Odysseus was a man of many ways who sacked the sacred citadels of Troy, traveled widely, struggled valiantly, and suffered greatly. But even if this Homeric catalogue of achievements pales in comparison to the praise lavished upon presidential candidates at our quadrennial conventions, there’s something about the guy that continues to spark admiration – despite the fact that he was once captured and imprisoned.

Latterday tributes from Lord Tennyson and James Joyce to Ulysses (O’s Roman name) gradually humanized the Ithacan warlord and brought him down to life-size. Ethan and Joel Coen decided that wasn’t quite enough indignity to heap upon the mythic hero. The Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou not only presented Ulysses Everett McGill as an escaped jailbird, they made him a Mississippi hayseed. If any role George Clooney plays can be considered a hayseed.

On a ridiculously limited budget, Citizens of the Universe bring Odysseus down the social ladder a few more rungs with O Brother, for the costumes and backdrops by Mandy Kendall aren’t Hollywood. On the other hand, the newly unveiled performance space at NoDa Brewing Company – on North Tryon Street – can’t be accused of being Mississippi.

Trailblazing yet another new venue, COTU embraces an outdoor ambiance that is more picnic theatre than dinner theatre. Beer flows from the interior of the spacious new NoDa tavern, and grub is rustled up from a food truck you can’t miss on your way in from the parking lot. There’s a bluegrass trio at the side of the modest playing area: the Hashbrown Belly Boys, who start up before the odyssey begins. Very relaxed and homespun.

Energy amps up as soon as director Courtney Varnum, perky and pigtailed, steps forward to introduce the show. O Brother is only loosely based on Homer’s epic – and loose only faintly describes its trashy, Southern-fried, slapstick style. These are not realms usually explored by James Cartee and his COTU, but Varnum has been able to round up more than a couple of the usual suspects from past COTU navigations.

Tom Ollis is the one Citizen you would expect to fit in well in this new rusticated universe, playing “Pappy” O’Daniel, the gregariously corrupt Mississippi governor seeking re-election while hosting a Grand Ole Opry-style radio show on the side. Sort of a cross between Tennessee Williams’ Big Daddy, Huey Long, and Yosemite Sam the way Ollis plays him – mythologically, he’s Menelaus in the scheme of things.

Most surprising is Shane Brayton as our hero Ulysses, after playing opposite Ollis as an arrogant Richard the lion-hearted in The Lion in Winter. Down in the Delta, Brayton taps into hillbilly pluck, energy, optimism, and rascality in a way that I’d likely find irresistible if part of the audience weren’t partying and oblivious. Of course, persisting in the face of such loud inattention adds to the pluck factor, but I found the entire cast up to that challenge.

We need to listen all the more attentively because some of the actors’ names are flip-flopped with the names of the folk they play in the playbill. The most obvious of these is “Sheriff Cooley as Stephen West-Rogers.” While he isn’t quite as megalomaniacal as he was in Fight Club or as violently vehement as he was in Trainspotting, West-Rogers is more than sufficiently implacable and clueless as the Sheriff.

Make no mistake, all of these principals are surrounded by sidekicks or underlings that make them look like sages. “Pappy” has Michael Haynes as Junior O’Daniel and Jeremy Bryant as Pap’s political opponent, Homer Stokes, who turns out to have clout in the KKK. Sheriff Cooley has Justin Mulcahy as his standard-issue deputy, and Ulysses is saddled with Michael Anderson as Delmar O’Donnell and Josh Elicker as Pete Hogwallop – Varnum and Charlie Napier extend the deep-down hayseediness of the Hogwallop family.

Not counting the vocal trio of Ulysses’ daughters that doubles as the Sirens, three of the actors zip through multiple roles. Napier stands out as the aforementioned Wash Hogwallop, as a Blind Seer modeled on Teiresias, and as a marauding gangster with a chip on his shoulder, George Nelson, because he’s not the more infamous Babyface. All the great menaces of The Odyssey don’t appear in this hashbrown mashup, but we do get Scotland Gallo as “Big Dan” Teague, certainly Polyphemus with his eyepatch, and Kendall as Penny, Ulysses’ wife.

All of Penelope’s famed suitors coalesce into one Vernon T. Waldrip (Napier again) and, with this Ulysses, Kendall’s infidelity doesn’t play as sluttiness so much as cold pragmatism. A ne’er-do-well jailbird – as opposed to an MIA hero – should cause a sensible wife to make new plans, even in the backwoods. Calypso’s shtick in the journey gets merged into the three singing Sirens – Becca Whitesmith, MoMo Hughes, and Laura M Lee.

As you’ve no doubt divined, Odysseus’ sea voyage and his epic struggle to return home after the Trojan War have been downsized to a comical chase triggered by Ulysses’ jailbreak. Toss in the bluegrass music and it shouldn’t be surprising if O Brother sometimes reminds you of Smokey and the Bandit – without the same Hollywood charisma from the lead rascal. Igniting the chase, Ulysses cons Delmar and Pete into joining him in the escape by enlisting them in a quest for a treasure that he has hidden at the bottom of a valley soon to be flooded to create a dam. Echoes of Deliverance, another bluegrass bromance.

Only here, the music is more deeply woven into the storyline. For along the way, the three escaped white men hook up with Tommy Johnson, a black musician who claims to have gotten his phenomenal skills in a deal with the devil, a la Robert Johnson. On one of their stops before they break up, the quartet cuts a record as the Soggy Bottom Boys. It’s at these key musical moments – and subsequently at his KKK lynching – that we encounter yet one more familiar COTU personality, James Lee Walker II, best remembered for his one-man presentation of Karl Marx.

Walker is a bit humbler this time around. Everybody is. Sifting through the distractions, I’d say that Koly McBride’s O Brother tribute/arrangement of the Coen Brothers’ film is among the very best adaptations COTU has ever done. If the ratio of audience to partyers can be boosted significantly this weekend, the experience will be even better.

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Aug. 1, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Cindy Kaza at The Comedy Zone

• The Monday Night Allstars at Double Door Inn

• Yoga on the Roof at Rooftop 210

• Trivia at Sir Edmond Halley's

• Karaoke at Vida Vida

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 29, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Charlotte Artist Showcase at Sugar Creek Brewing Co.


• Silent Disco at Rooftop 210

• 24 Hours of Booty Charlotte in Myers Park

• Best Of Open Mic Celebration at McGlohon Theater

• Brio w/ Nige Hood, King Callis, Brass Monk and Blue House Band at The Station

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 28, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Feast On Culture w/ Michael W. Twitty at Founders Hall

• A Silent Film w/ Margolnick of Flagship at Visulite Theatre

• Drew Lynch at The Comedy Zone

• Trivia at VBGB

• Alive After Five w/ Rubberband at Rooftop 210

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 27, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• The Stray Birds at The Evening Muse

• Black Southern Belle Charlotte Tastemaker Summit at Tuft

• Patabamba w/ El Malpais at Snug Harbor

• Sustainability Education through Action and Outreach at Freedom Park Pavilion

• Counting Crows w/ Rob Thomas, K Phillips at PNC Music Pavilion

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 25, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Still Life Workshop with Marc Chatov at Charlotte Fine Art Gallery

• Donna Scott Productions' Women Entrepreneurs in Business and Arts Speaker Series at Charlotte Art League

• Monday Night Allstars at Double Door Inn

• Yoga on the Roof at Rooftop 210

• Cocktails and Gardens at The Duke Mansion

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 24, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Tunes for Tarrah at Evening Muse

• Urban Gypsy Traveling Trunk Show at Tuft

• Sarah Jarosz at McGlohon Theater

• Paint Session at Rocky River Vineyards

• Snoop Dogg w/ Wiz Khalifa at PNC Music Pavilion

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 23, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Garbage at The Fillmore

• Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made at C3 Lab

• Urban Gypsy Traveling Trunk Show at Tuft

• Campus Pride Homecoming Celebration at Johnson & Wales University

• Gwen Stefani at PNC Music Pavilion

Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, July 22, 2016 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Zakk Wylde at Amos' Southend

• Christmas in July at Rooftop 210

• Donnie at Neighborhood Theatre

• 12th Annual Schloss Summer Lecture and Dinner at Temple Beth El

• Sister Act at CPCC's Halton Theater