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Helen
By Ellen McLaughlin
Directed by Andrea J. Dymond
At Next Theatre
At the Noyes Cultural Center
927 Noyes
Evanston, IL
Call 847-475-1875, tickets $20 - $35
Thursdays at 7:30 PM
Fridays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 2 PM
Running time is 95 minutes with no intermission
Through October 15, 2006
Greek myth updated for the 21st Century
Ellen McLaughlin updates Euripides’ revisionist version of the myth of Helen of Troy. In this somewhat comical version, Helen never goes to Troy. Instead she spends 17 years in a plush Egyptian hotel suit (a spectacular Egyptian styled colorful set designed by Keith Pitts and lighted by Charles Cooper). The set depicts both the ancient Egyptian look and the modern luxury hotel.
Helen’s story is basically unknown with several versions, among which Paris, a young Trojan prince, seduces her in Sparta and spirited her off top Troy. Helen’s husband, King Menelaus wages a ten year war to get her back. But according to Euripides,’ Helen never makes it to Troy. The gods create a “simulacrum” (likeness) of her made from clouds. Instead she makes it to Egypt until the end of the ten year war.
In Ellen McLaughlin’s version, we find Helen in a time warp where is in both an ancient and contemporary time simultaneously. Helen (Hollis McCarthy) lazes around her plush hotel bored silly. She finds killing flies her lone amusement. She is information starved about her war. The TV is stuck on the weather channel. Her visitors tell her story which she has no knowledge of nor any control over since she is a prisoner in her hotel room. Is she a cunning virgin or a lustful whore or a vengeful woman who laughed at the death of thousands in her name?
Despite terrific performances from Hollis McCarthy as Helen, Diane Dorsey as the servant, Laura T. Fisher as Athena, Tasha Anne James as Lo and Jeff Still as Menelaus, the play seems flat with too many long monotonous speeches that lost my interest quickly.
The early humor promised more satire and comedy only to be lost in all the long descriptive speeches. The lack of dramatic tension, mystery and action rendered this work mundane with too much philosophizing about femininity and its effects on war. Helen is powerless because she doesn’t own her story. The long explanations are much too dry and complicated for us to care about. We never connect with this prime Donna. Only when Jeff Still enters as her husband do we care at all and then only about him.
I must confess that I have limited knowledge and interest in Greek Mythology so this long-winded work lost me quickly. The slow pace and the long speeches dragged on. Better to spice up this work with more humor and/or biting satire. Those into these timeless stories may find the work engaging.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: September 18, 2006
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