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Theatre Projects Manitoba’s latest production slides between the mythic past and the looming future, the perspectives of the oppressor and the oppressed, and the distinction between revenge and righteousness.
Prophecy, a reframing of Homer’s The Iliad through the lens of its female characters, is set to officially open on March 20 at the Rachel Browne Theatre in the Exchange District. It’s a night that’s been nearly a decade in the making for its playwright and star.
“When I was in high school here in Winnipeg, my now-best friend said to me, ‘I want to do a fringe show about the myth of Perseus and Medusa,’” shared Jessy Ardern about how she got her start in the world of Greek mythology on Morning Light. Since that point, the theatre artist has been engaging with the stories contained within that world and observing how they underpin the storytelling practices of Western culture.
“Even if you aren’t familiar with Greek myth or Greek theatre, so much of the way we structure our stories and think of our stories actually comes from there.”
A big part of Ardern’s fascination with these stories is how they simultaneously feel very large and very small. “It’s stories on a scale and of a scope that we so often don’t play with anymore,” she explains. “At the same time, mythology – and I would say particularly Greek mythology – is so interested in character. And so, you adapt these stories, and as you know, thousands of people have adapted them over the years. There’s a thousand different versions of Achilles, there’s a thousand different versions of Cassandra because we take on our own perspectives and we play with those characters and try to figure out their motivations.”
The character of Cassandra is one of the four that Ardern inhabits in Prophecy, along with the Trojan queen Hecuba, the eventual prisoner-of-war Briseis, and the wife of the warrior Hector, Andromache. By inhabiting these characters, Ardern shifts the focus away from The Iliad’s star character Achilles and onto the experiences of the women during the Trojan War from its inception.
“I always feel a bit guilty when I say I’m having fun playing the women of Troy,” admits Ardern, noting that these characters do not have a happy ending. “I hope that some of them are quite funny, and they aren’t people who sit at home all day rocking in a corner, going ‘Oh, the terror! The horror!’” They’re intelligent, funny, practical people, who, really until quite late in that story, are winning.”
By portraying the intelligent and funny qualities of these women, Ardern aims to bring full dimension and grounding to these grand characters from an even grander storytelling tradition. “As much as they are grand historical figures, that’s an empty shape that needs to be filled,” Ardern explains. “You can’t just play the container of, ‘I’m the Queen of Troy and I’m kind of grumpy sometimes.’ She’s got to feel like a real person, or it’s frankly not that interesting.”
Audiences can see these characters take on new life in Prophecy at the Rachel Browne Theatre (211 Bannantyne Avenue) from March 20 to 30. Showtimes and tickets are available at Theatre Projects Manitoba’s website.
