Photo by Mike MacDonald.
One of my favourite things about going to see a new piece of theatre is that I am so often given a window into the interests of the artists creating the work, and this opens up a whole new world of interest for me. In Luciana Silvestre Fernandes’ A Sapphic Affair, now playing at Eastern Front Theatre’s Stages Festival, I was introduced to the poetry of Sappho, an Ancient Greek woman who was considered in her day to be one of the greatest lyric poets. Although most of her poetry has been lost, scholars have been interested in her life and her work for centuries, and today most scholars consider her to have been a Queer writer, whose writing, in part, celebrated deep connections and sexual passion between two women.
Creator and Director Luciana Silvestre Fernandes mixes Sappho’s poetry with movement and the Japanese rope bondage art Shibari to tell the story of two women and the deep love, intimacy and trust between them, but also how a larger fear threatens to tear them (or cut them) apart from one another. The two women are beautifully played by Fernandes and Emma James, and I found they were able to beautifully convey these deep emotions, using minimal text, largely through the ways their bodies moved together. The use of Shibari allowed the audience a myriad of different interpretations. The act of one woman gently tying another up seemed to exist on one plane as a realistic element in this relationship, but it also seemed symbolic, and inviting analysis. Both women from the beginning of the piece wear ropes around themselves, perhaps suggesting the constrains they feel in their society, the pressures they feel to conform, or the expectations from their families, but then they also have agency over the rope, they can use it to become closer to one another, both physically, and emotionally. At one point Fernandes is able to move James’ limbs like a marionettist, showing the amount of control she has over her partner, or, conversely, showing how much trust James has in her. They are able to pull one another closer, but with just a snip of a pair of scissors they can be irrevocably separated. Olivia Wheeler gives us a vivid soundscape that suggested to me that perhaps there were ominous external forces threatening this pair, and that their ability to live their lives on their own terms might be difficult, but also that it ultimately could be worth the struggle.
A Sapphic Affair is a captivating and imaginative piece that explores the depth of connection between lovers, and the audience feels that immense depth so ardently because of course the trust between the characters is mirrored in the trust required between the two performers. Here the lines blur in a very interesting way, between fact and fiction, real and imaginary, and this is evocative of Sappho’s stitched-together legacy as well.
Maenad’s Theatre’s A Sapphic Affair plays one more time on Saturday, June 10th, 2023 at 7:30pm at Alderney Landing Theatre (2 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia) as part of Eastern Front Theatre’s Stages Festival. Tickets are available at this website and are between $17.00 and $27.00 on a sliding PWYC scale. If cost is a barrier to you reach out to Kat. Alderney Landing is accessible for wheelchair users; the theatre is on the second level, and there is an elevator. For more information or questions about accessibility, please email Accessibility Coordinator Sara Graham.
