A new play is being staged at The Pit Theatre by the King’s Theatrical Society. Katie Clarke’s Will You Taste Our Blood mixes Euripides’ The Bacchae with a contemporary story of three friends in their early twenties navigating through various sexual encounters. Clarke draws a parallel between the way female drunkenness, pleasure, and desire are depicted as the downfall of kings in The Bacchae, and the ways that women are still simultaneously shamed for wanting sex, or not wanting sex, and the predatory and misogynic behaviour that continues to pervade today’s “hook-up culture.”
The themes and ideas explored in this play are very strong, timely, and show deep insights into the complexities of our society’s relationship to sex, especially sex amongst teenagers and young adults. I found the allusions to The Bacchae and the way the mob of actors moved and spoke in unison very evocative and interesting. Director Adrianna Vanos excels especially in the way she uses this sexualized demon “mob” to ensnare our protagonist Mae (Alex Retzer). The chorus performers, Eddie Cuevas, James Ersil, Hal Rotman, Tessa Hill, Kaija Jussinoja and Gaby Milner, bring great intensity, and also individuality to their movement and the text. Retzer is also strong as Mae, a character she plays with a compelling sense of empathy.
I really like the dynamic Clarke has created between Mae and her two best friends, Clark (Jessica Hannaford) and Patrick (Ben Burchell). I wanted to see more of them. I wanted to see what Clark and Mae talked about other than their sexual histories. I wanted Patrick to be more firmly woven into this dynamic as well. I wanted to see his relationship with Clark earlier. When Mae goes on a date with the one guy who doesn’t want to sleep with her I wanted to know where they met, how they decided to get Chinese food, how long they had been hanging out in her apartment and what they talked about before she misunderstood his intentions. I wanted to see her talking to her mom, and the ways that she tried to avoid talking about the things that were really troubling her. Similarly, I wanted the arcs for Clark and Patrick’s stories to be stronger and clearer from the beginning. At the end of the play it seems as though the narrative shifts from being Mae’s story to being Patrick’s, and Mae suddenly becomes the best friend in someone else’s story. Clarke’s strongest dialogue in the play is in scenes with supporting characters: girls’ vomiting at house parties, two people trying to make small talk over booming club music, because it captures beautifully how two people really talk to one another in these scenarios. I encourage Clarke to let Mae, Clark, and Patrick speak with one another less as a means to articulate the thesis of the play, but instead in a way that is rooted in their unique characters and relationships.
I love that the King’s Theatrical Society provides space for new work, and I love that young playwrights like Katie Clarke are using theatre to reimagine classical works and explore themes and ideas that are important and pertinent to society today. Will You Taste Our Blood is an ambitious piece that has a lot of very strong elements and much potential for growth. It is clear from Mae’s eloquent monologues that Clarke is a talented writer and a playwright of promise. There is a lot that is really interesting and unique about this production.
Will You Taste Our Blood plays at The Pit at the University of King’s College (6350 Coburg Road, Halifax) until March 7th, 2020 at 8pm. Doors to the Pit will open at 7:45pm. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for general admission. You can buy tickets ONLINE HERE or at the door. The Box Office opens in the lobby of the King’s A&A Building at 7:00. The Pit is in the basement.
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