Wild and Physical
A notice of this theatrical event came through my inbox. I won’t be making it to Brisbane to see it, but I’m intrigued. It is a play (or a combination of music, aerial acrobatics, and story) entitled “Holding Achilles.” A “physical theatre company” called Legs On The Wall and “visual theater masterminds” Dead Puppet Society are creating it.
They describe the production like this:
Set against the intense violence of the Trojan War, this genre-bending production blends heightened physicality and visual storytelling to weave a legend of mythic proportions.
A Relationship Play with a Pacifist
Here are two more pull quotes about the production—food for thought about this ancient epic.
In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles describes his childhood friend and wartime companion Patroclus as ‘the man I loved beyond all other comrades, loved as my own life’, providing our jumping off point to re-examine the hero’s relationship with his lesser-known lover. He warned audiences not to expect a traditional retelling of the Iliad.
Our adaptation flips the notion of what’s ‘heroic’ on its head. In this intimate account of the Trojan war, a bloody war story famed for its violence, the hero is a pacifist queer man.
Although they claim a “flip on the head” of what the Iliad presents as heroic, I’m not convinced. My understanding of Homer’s Achilles includes a strongly expressed anti-war strand. I wouldn’t call him a pacifist. He is, after all, a very effective warrior. However, he is the character who calls the validity of the war into question. He goes on to describe his relationship to his men as a mother bird caring for her babies. So their interpretation of the Iliad may be less radical than they think.
But either way, I find the idea of music and a powerful physicality combined with storytelling appealing. In sum, I’d love to witness this latest take on the evolution of interpreting Homer.
For another entertaining Homeric “take” a post about Natalie Haynes and A Thousand Ships.
Finally, the photo at the top shows an Attic red figure vase of Achilles binding Patroclus’ wound.