Written by orange• December 8, 2025• 4:02 am• fullerton, Review, Theater, Uncategorized

Anon(ymous) @ Fullerton Community College – Review

photo credit: Fullerton Community College

Written by Patrick Chavis

Anon(ymous) is playing now at Fullerton Community College – Nov 21 – Dec 6, 2025.

Fullerton Community College presents Anon(ymous), a dark, surrealist take on The Odyssey told through the lens of a refugee. It has sharp wit and eccentric characters, to say the least. This show had some intense moments but lacked consistency, and the weirdness factor could have been turned up a notch.

Story:

Refugee Anon, played by Nicholas (Elio) Martinez, was separated from his mother, Nemasani (Mikayla Nance), at a young age at sea when they were escaping from their home country. Nemasani becomes a laborer for a mean and sexually abusive boss, Mr. Mackus (Wayne Green), who exploits refugee workers for cheaper wages. Nemasani has no idea whether her son is dead or alive.

Anon washes up on the shore of the beach, but it’s very different from the one Odysseus washed up on in The Odyssey. Instead, he’s at a high-end beachfront resort. He is tempted by Calista (Jiwon Kim), a demanding beach babe, who operates in a similar tempting way as Calypso. The play, with added modern context on the refugee experience, melds The Odyssey with the real-world struggle of refugees.

Set Design:

This production found a home at Fullerton College’s Bronwyn Dodson Theater. They use a traverse-stage setup with the stage in the middle. The seating faces the stage and each other on only two sides. The middle section was kept rather dim on both sides of the platform, which looks like painted waves book ending the set. A small, octagonal hole, with symbolic meaning in the story, is placed closer to one side of the stage. This unorthodox stage matches well with the storylines’ mixture of surrealism and The Odyssey.

Acting/Script:

What really stood out in this showing were performances that brought out the dangers and dehumanization refugees face. The performances took a heightened, theatrical approach that created palpable tension and unease.

Wayne Green (Mr. Mackus, Mr. Zyclo, Strygal) plays multiple characters in this production. He was absolutely terrifying as the one-eyed butcher, Mr. Zyclo, based on the Cyclops. Green’s slow, confident movements, combined with an unearthly calm demeanor while speaking, brought a real sense of danger, with the help, of course, from the squawking of Jiwon Kim (pet bird) in a colorful, blanket-like fabric.

One of the weaknesses in this play is the title character, Anon. His character is intentionally underwritten because he’s not meant to represent an individual but rather the refugee experience as a whole. This clashes with the other connection of this story, The Odyssey. Odysseus is a much more interesting character. More information about him is given. He is way more active and has more agency in his perils. Anon, to keep him more as a vessel than a character, is harder to grab onto within the story.

Still, Martinez, I remember from this year’s OCR Nominated production of Cabaret because it was awesome!

Displays of anger, fear, and anxiety over the difficult situations he’s thrust into are most definitely evident in his performance, as he serves the material well throughout the show’s 80-minute runtime.