The Tent
Updates, Progress and Logbook from our exciting new journey on the high seas!
Production Notes
From a workshop on terza rima, to hosting our own eighteenth century Romantic and Frankenstein conference, we at the press have had so many joyous projects related to the classics and theatre. But The Tent requires work that is hard to get people excited about, especially on internet; writing; rewriting, researching, editing and workshopping the written parts of an ancient-classic inspired play.
I was extraordinarily lucky to have some funding for this seedling of a project and to bring West on as a co-writer. I had a tiny portion of this play but was unsure where to take it and why. West not only finished it but drafted it countless times, using his work and knowledge in classic texts, translation, and creative writing.
The Tent is a play about queer refugees in a war camp during the Trojan War. It discusses indigeneity and disability, and how academia keeps people who do not look like them out of their education systems. The play is about continuously being watched by the pompous gods and the-glued-to-their-screen citizens of the agora alike. All of them watch you do the only thing you can; exist. Rather than make this about games or glory, violence or sport, this is about the lived reality of division and identity.
However, as the play continues and parts become less defined (roll swapping and role continuing) it is clear that it is a play about love and its endurance.
The Tent starts out as a symbol of ambiguity; battlefield encampments, homeless encampments, refugee settlements, ancestral homes of those who are indigenous, and many others….All memories of those who dare to call an imperfect shelter in the eyes of a colonial society…a home.
We drew inspiration from Plato’s Symposium and Phaedra, as well as modern productions of these works in the ancient theatres they were written for. Then there is Pasolini’s Medea with Maria Callas, Norma Jeane Baker of Troy by Anne Carson, Marie Christine, and various other iterations of these old stories through the befuddlements of the modern day. In Symposium, Pausanias lectures about his belief in two Aphrodites, one twin for love of the body and one for love of the soul. The synergy these two Aphrodites have with the Helen in Troy and Helen in Egypt is a major guiding spirit for The Tent.
The Tent explores the dynamics of ‘soulmates’ and multiplicitous gender dynamics, not proposing one is worse or better than the other, but that the ‘splitting’ Plato describes in detail is reflected back in the hardships of the world. Rather than rotating between ‘blame’ of who has caused the lovers amidst war to be separated, it is a dynamic look at antiquities and using the “multiple layers between the day’s events and our hearing of it” (Bernard, 1998) to look at the story from all perspectives an ancient war produces, and the queer fractures that follow from its contingency. The “fifth, incomplete hand account” (Bernard 1998) becomes a meta narrative taking the production into a different time period, grappling with how ‘incomplete’ and meta narration can add more meaning to the ‘rings’ of a historical text, so to speak.
While we have weaved ancient history and all history that comes after, we have also undoubtedly put some of ourselves into this piece of artwork, too. Our most vulnerable experiences put us closer to the epicentre of creation and our most otherworldly experiences bring us closer to Art. The tireless drafting and re-drafting of this project (along with extension notes on staging) means we are finally ready to bring it to table reads and put it up on our website for the script to be read!
Setting Notes
The Tent is moved in three parts so that clockwise and counterclockwise rotation allows for the set to be transformed in real time.
The first set is the battlefield: it has a mix of odds and ends from Achilles and Patroclus’ time living together in uncertain and underpaid housing arrangements. The cushions are arranged as a makeshift couch. There is a video game set, weights, books, and some suitcases with piled laundry in them.
The second set is a luxurious hotel: this is where Aphrodite and Helen have a brief but passionate time together. It is filled with silks and framed embroidery, fancy handsoap wrappers and jewelry trinkets. The cushions have been arranged to look like a bed upon the floor. The suitcases are turned into nightstands.
The third is the underworld: This part just requires lights out and some choreographed fumbling in the dark with disability-safe lanterns.
The fourth set is Hauhet’s office: The walls of the tent transform into a different patterned fabric (to resemble wallpaper). The wallpaper is lined with Hauhet’s office life; photos, calendars, admin notes, poems, fragments of stories they collect. The suitcases become a desk. Hauhet arranges the cushions into an office chair. A lantern serves as a desk lamp that Hauhet reads their office papers and mail from.
The fifth set is Briseis’ apartment: The walls are sparse and resemble an apartment with little to no care. The fabric is ‘peeling’ to resemble worn down paint and water stains. Briseis’ war badges hang neatly on the wall. There is little else there in the way of photos or lived in tokens of life. The cushions become a pull-out type couch with little comfort. The hotel blankets from the previous scene are overturned—they are much more worn and plain. Some of the cushions become a table for Briseis’ leftover food and medication as they move around the stage, ailing.
While a virtual read is disability friendly by nature, we have worked in this industry very long. When staging things in real life we have several ways this transfer’s over seamlessly; these props/setpieces do not make for a hindrance for anyone with physical mobility and can be moved with ease. The set pieces are wheelchair, cane, and chronic fatigue adaptable. All scenes can be done without prolonged standing if/when necessary, and make for easy integration of all stage levels while still adapting to those with chronic fatigue, muscle weakness, and adaptable technology to use their legs.
Furthermore, the script calls for soft illuminating light (and brief darkness with lanterns that softly flicker but do not flash) and does not utilize seizure and migraine inducing technology that often makes watching theatre inaccessible for so many demographics. Sound wise, the production would have sound and score, but would not feature any loud bangs or gunshots in order to be both sensory friendly and encourage those with PTSD to see this show, especially with so many themes about war and soldiers.
Excerpts
I love you,
the borders will not
keep me out; I will
run to you, I will
run for you, I will run
with you everywhere;
when you are sick
I will make sure someone
takes care of you
when you are well I will
make sure
we are laughing in
each other’s arms
again…Don’t worry, the world has
already
ended,
let’s
be together anyways
no matter what, sweetheart
I will always
love you (love you, love you…)
Over dynamic sounds of war and newspaper reels, we edited a soundscape of discourse and chaos to reflect the nature of The Tent’s revolving background. As the world above collapses into the ancient underworld, there is also a tiny but powerful message of hope threaded through, much like the powerful weaving in The Odyssey to return home once more.
ACHILLES:
Did I dream up the last five years? We were on a boat with the best and brightest Greece had to offer. We killed a princess for a favoured wind as the gods sat back and flipped through channels faster than mortals can blink. They’ll watch for an hour, then tune in next week to see if their favourite made it.
PATROCLUS:
We didn’t kill the princess. A virgin goddess stayed her father’s hand.
ACHILLES:
We told ourselves that after the fact. What hands have the gods stayed?
PATROCLUS:
Her poor mother’s.
ACHILLES:
Oh gods, nothing worse than losing a child. Except, you know, dying.
PATROCLUS:
Why do people even have children?
ACHILLES:
So they can be convinced of the fact that nobody suffers more than they. That’s why my mum had me. You?
PATROCLUS:
I was born because it was something to do.
ACHILLES snorts again, beats PATROCLUS at Mario Kart.
ACHILLES:
This is some gig. No dental, no vacation days, I’m barely making two drachma an hour once you take out the tribute to the gods. ‘You’re an important part of the Greeks’ landing party family’ said Menelaos, the one time I saw him on the deck of the ship. Once I wanted to…Now my days are directionless and my men are dispensable.
PATROCLUS:
All of them?
ACHILLES:
When you’re here you are not a soldier.
PATROCLUS:
And what aren’t you when you are here?
ACHILLES:
I’m not constellation-bound. To throw a spear when the walls can tear is foolhardy. And to make war in comfort is monstrous.
PATROCLUS:
When are you uncomfortable?
ACHILLES paces, restless and stymied.
ACHILLES:
The sun sets in its own time. Waste of a day to think of the dark.
PATROCLUS:
But the sun always sets. Waste of a night not to have kindling for the fire.
APHRODITE:
I don’t want you to go back to Sparta, out of my sight.
HELEN:
Then don’t let me go back to Sparta. Let me stay in your sun.
APHRODITE:
What power do I have, my city burnt, my heroes killed and survivors enslaved, scattered to the wind? What fool sacrifices to the goddess bequeathed of nothing?
HELEN:
Helen would. I’ll be your fool, for I’ve seen what becomes of the clever men. How close have I held your icon, wishing for nothing except the firm warmth of your flesh against mine? How many prayers did I whisper, wet-lipped, into your clay ear? Would you doubt the one who would be your high priestess, and deny her worship?
APHRODITE:
Gods must doubt.
HELEN:
Lovers cannot. Could you be my lover?
APHRODITE:
I… want to be.
HELEN:
Then make one marvel for me, my love. Take me from here, replace the Trojan Helen with straw and glamour. Show me what other Helens there are.
APHRODITE:
No other Helen except the one who is mine.
HELEN:
Nobody to worship you, save Helen. Save Helen to worship you, and nobody else. Please.
APHRODITE:
What about Egypt?
HELEN:
What’s in Egypt?
SCENE VI
SETTING: BRISEIS’ apartment, evening. THE ENSEMBLE are still there, but they are closer, touching, reaching out and embracing—
AT RISE: BRISEIS is asleep on the floor, maybe dying. They look to where the sound of footsteps might be coming from. A HOODED FIGURE in black appears from behind the walls, parts them and walks into the apartment, with a scythe-like object and walks across to BRISEIS. Like Death and The Maiden, they form a stark contrast, and also exude longing amidst fear. The figure comes closer and BRISEIS recoils. The scythe is raised…but the figure doesn’t lunge or strike. BRISEIS leans in and smells coffee. Instead, the HOODED FIGURE reaches a hand out and caresses their face. BRISEIS, realising the touch of that same hand from many years ago, leans into it and tips their head back. They kiss. The figure removes their hood. It is HAUHET. Across from each other, mid-embrace, they lock eyes and smile.
HAUHET picks BRISEIS up and spins them around.
THE ENSEMBLE circles around them, in a whirlpool, kind of dancing like the rite of Spring, the TENT is ripped apart during this; ACHILLES, PATROCLUS, HELEN, APHRODITE, and everyone else, we hear sounds as before, evolving news, horrific, we hear the more personal confessions I would personally love to have something like a (“I was happy to come see you, I’m looking forward to the life we’re going to have together, no matter what—” echoes) The sound of arrows turn to birdsong and the stage turns into a giant, frenzied bacchanal of embracing, kissing, and having sex. In the middle we see HAUHET and BRISEIS, they are surrounded by people they have loved, semi-touching, writhing as in the beginning, but it is beautiful, flower-like and pulsing.
HAUHET (embracing)
I’ll always take care of you, my darling, no matter what.
BRISEIS
No matter what happens, I’ll always love you.
BIRDSONG shifts over with the cover of darkness. The giant wave of sound plays in reverse, it kind of looks like that birth of VENUS.
Made possible by a generous grant from the Ontario Arts Council
