IGNITE! Festival of Emerging Artists is an amazing opportunity and platform for up-and-coming artists to showcase their work and turn audiences on to new ideas, and, perhaps, new takes on old stories.
One of this year’s performance pieces is Helen, written by Megan Couch as an alternate look at the myth of Helen of Troy, often thought to be the selfish, thoughtless woman whose decisions ultimately caused the Trojan War. The play examines the story, however, from a more sympathetic look at Helen and what was imposed upon her.
“She was just sort of a player in everyone else’s story,” explains Madeleine Taylor-Gregg, director of Helen, who speaks to Couch’s vision for this reimagining of the story. “That sort of became an important part to (Couch), was to sort of flip the story on its head and tell it from Helen’s perspective, showing that she is actually a woman with agency and independence and capability.
“That’s sort of the journey for her,” Taylor-Gregg explains of Helen and her emotions at feeling responsible for widespread suffering. “It’s her fighting against this lack of agency and this lack of independence because she has been forced into ‘her place,’ for lack of a better word, and so it’s just watching her have moments of freedom and how she frees herself from all of it, from the mythology and in general as well.”
Helen looks at issues of misogyny and society’s tendency to listen to, and believe, the male point of view. “It starts off showcasing the idea that not all women are supporting each other, they tend to like to blame one another in situations that are really out of everyone’s control,” explains Taylor-Gregg.
A chorus of five slave women feature prominently in Helen’s emotional journey surrounding her predicament: “There’s a lot of animosity towards Helen because (the chorus) believe this is all her fault, but with the chorus Helen has this realization that it isn’t her fault, and that she has it within her to make choices for herself.”
The issues on women’s rights and male perceptions raised in this play are some that Taylor-Gregg feels passionate about. “Getting together with a very strong group of talented women to do this show has been super empowering and very inspiring. They’re all incredible … We have good discussions about these topics outside of the space and it really spurns a lot of conversation between all of us which I think is super important and really adds to the content of the play that we can connect it to now.”
Festival director Charles Netto agrees with this sentiment, and looks to the relevance of the story to today’s audiences. “I think Megan (Couch) has a strong voice, it’s a really strong play, she’s speaking to something that is on the forefront right now of a lot of people’s minds and we’re really thinking and struggling and grasping with it and I think that it plays into that conversation.”
Helen runs June 5 – 8 at West Village Theatre.
Photo Credit: Chantell Arbic
Kari Watson is a writer and former Listings Editor of FFWD Weekly, and has continued to bring event listings to Calgary through theYYSCENE and her event listings page, The Culture Cycle. Contact her at kari@theyyscene.com.