Two Planks and a Passion Theatre has another extremely timely adaptation of an older play to end their 2019 Season, the World Premiere of Gillian Clark’s The Ruins by Fire. It is based on Euripides’ The Trojan Women, although, like Catherine Banks’ In This Light earlier this summer, a knowledge of the source material isn’t necessary at all to understand or fully appreciate the new work.
Clark sets this play in the present, or the future, or the past, or, somehow, all three at the same time. All the characters are young, Andromache (Genevieve Steele) is ten, Odysseus (Jeff Schwager) and Penelope (Hilary Adams) are seventeen. The others, Cassandra (Jackie Torrens), Thal (Devin MacKinnon), Menelaus (Ryan Rogerson), Helen (Mary Fay Coady) and Hecuba (Burgandy Code) are somewhere in the middle. Odysseus has an elaborate and dangerous plan for asking Penelope to attend the prom with him. Cassandra, who often gets visions and has the second sight, is disturbed by a prophecy she reads as warning of the advent of the end of the world. No one else will listen to her. Her older sister, Hecuba, tries to protect her against the others who can be vicious and cruel, but they know a secret that threatens to undermine Cassandra’s sense of security and trust even further.
The feel of the play reminded me a bit of Stephen King’s novel IT, there’s something really menacing in all the children that is simultaneously realistic and also heightened, but we also have a sense that, underneath all their baggage and hormones, they really do care about one another, and have the potential to grow up to be good people. Clark does a beautiful job of layering and weaving a complex subtext within the characters and their interactions with one another. The plot of the play is relatively simple, but so much of the most compelling drama is in watching how these young people use power and manipulation, magic and deception in attempt to protect themselves, achieve their goals, to be heard, or in attempt to connect with one another. Cassandra has magical abilities and she allows us to see briefly into the inner worlds of some of the characters, as they give unconscious stylized monologues about their mothers. Ancient Greek plays are interested in ideas of heredity, and here Clark touches on concepts of what we understand now as intergenerational trauma, and also explores the unique relationships between mothers and their daughters. Clark also delves into concepts of Toxic Masculinity, in the interactions between Odysseus and Thal, Thal and Cassandra and Andromache, and Odysseus and Cassandra. Here we see the ways that boys bully those who they perceive to be “weak,” and sometimes force them to prove themselves “as men” by terrorizing younger or more vulnerable women.
All eight actors give beautiful performances. Adams is heartbreaking as a desperate girl with a big secret, Rogerson brings some levity with laid back and optimistic Menelaus, who ends up genuinely connecting with Helen. Coady brings a wonderful Alexis Rose-quality to Helen, although I think Alexis would also consider Helen to be a bit of a bitch. I loved watching Coady melt Helen’s walls momentarily and then immediately build them back up. MacKinnon does a great job balancing Thal’s humanity and his sensitivity, but also his capacity for heartlessness. Steele reminds us how innocent, but also how fierce ten year olds can be. Odysseus slings casual misogyny and homophobia the way many seventeen year old boys still do, but Schwager shows us his vulnerability too and reminds us that even if what he’s saying is infuriating, it’s possible he doesn’t know any better. Where are the role models he needs? Where has society failed him so far? Code and Torrens create a beautiful sisterly duo as Hecuba and Cassandra; they are compelling counterparts for one another. Hecuba is guarded and skeptical, protective and cagey. Cassandra is wildly passionate, fearless in her openness, and tenderhearted. Their love for one another shines through the chaos in their community.
Ken Schwartz stages the play around the fire, which is perfect for this play, in which fire plays an important role, but also it grounds the story in images of childhood summers, and, indeed, the characters roast marshmallows and hot dogs, and we get the sense that this is part of the way they have played together and grown up together all their lives. One thing that particularly struck me (and this might be a spoiler, so proceed with caution) about this play and its use of fire, was the complete destruction, live onstage, of two of the show’s props. For me, it made the moment of loss much more profound because it was real, and even though the props, I assume, don’t have significance to the actors the way they have for their characters, there was something very unique about knowing that we were all actually watching something burn that could never be recovered. I spent a lot of the play wondering whether we were going to see the scene where Odysseus rides his bicycle off a barn roof and flies over the flames of the fire, and if so, how Schwager was going to manage that… and I found that the solution was funny and charming, but also effective.
The Ruins By Fire, ultimately, is about a young girl who knows that a threat is coming to her town that will be caused by the actions of her friends. She warns them and warns them and warns them, but no one believes her until it’s too late. Today, Greta Thunberg sails into New York City after a two-weeks journey across the Atlantic Ocean. She is there to attend the United Nations climate summits. Perhaps, people are beginning to listen.
The Ruins by Fire plays at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts (555 Ross Creek Road, Canning) from August 28th to September 1st at 8:00pm. Tickets range in price from $10.00- $28.69 and can be purchased HERE or by calling 902.582.3073.
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