When the men stop fighting, it seems the women have only just begun.
Following on from Ava Pickett‘s debut play 1536 (which I said was one of my top three plays I have ever seen), her new show Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy was obviously a piece of theatre I was going to see – and I did, last night at Stratford East Theatre.
In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world – a status that came with real power. Before she was married, her suitors swore an oath that whoever she chose, all the others would go to war to win her back if she were ever “stolen” from him. But what if Helen simply decided to leave her marriage for someone else? Doesn’t she get a say in what happens to her own life?
That’s the question Ava Pickett’s new play sets out to explore. Helen leaves her husband Marcus and their daughter Hermione for a man called Paris, someone she’s only just met. Marcus and his friend Mario (married to Cee) go after Paris and bring Helen home – with no thought given to whether she actually wants to be rescued. What follows is a decade-long civil conflict: riots, looting, petrol bombs, foreigners dragged from hotels and their businesses burned, all justified by the idea that Helen is worthy of saving.
Women are taking the power back
It’s a story about men overpowering women and women deciding it’s time to take the power back, while more subtly warning us that starting a war over “foreigners” coming into the country never ends well.
Pickett picks up the story once the fighting is over, when Helen finally comes home, and relocates it to present-day Essex, so the “decade-long war fought in her name” becomes a modern, recognisable backdrop rather than ancient Troy.
The play opens with Helen arriving at Cee’s beautiful Essex home, nearly naked and covered in blood, on cream carpets that really don’t take kindly to it.
A prisoner of her own mind
Helen is a woman blamed by other women and has to face the consequences of a war fought supposedly for her sake. She might be home, but she’s still very much a prisoner, just of her own mind now, rather than anyone else’s.
THE CAST
Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey, ITV & Focus Features; upcoming film The Queen of Fashion) leaves her heart on the stage as Helen – angry and determined to get revenge on those who have wronged her, complemented by Laura Aikman (Gavin & Stacey, BBC; upcoming new series of Line of Duty, BBC) as Cee, your standard essex girl stereotype, with more concern over her immaculate new carpet than the political war going on in front of her eyes.
Olivier Award-winning actress Maimuna Memon (who wrote and starred in the incredible Manic Street Creature at Kiln) brings northern humour to the play as ball-busting cleaner-come-killer, Dani.
Gerard Monaco (Richard II, Bridge Theatre; Dear England, BBC) as Mario and Jay Taylor (Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies, Swan Theatre/ West End/ Broadway; Midsomer Murders, ITV) as Marcus bookmark the piece, nipping off to the pub for the majority of the play but making it count when they are on stage.
Ethan Moorhouse (The Moment, Studio365; I Know I Know I Know, Southwark Playhouse) opens the show with an impressive monologue and acts as a sort of narrator throughout the show – but certainly not one I would want to meet in a dark alley at night.
Emma Monnickendam (Sisters in Arms, BBC; Hope, Clean Break/Royal Court Theatre) appears at the end of Act One as the surprise guest, Hermione, seeking answers and assurance from her mother, to ensure she does a better job with her own unborn child (we never seem to find out what happened to her though – is she still locked in the bathroom?)
Another triumph for Ava Pickett
Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy at Stratford East is another triumph for Ava Pickett. Very different from 1536 but staying with the same theme of modernising classic stories for an audience who may usually yawn at the idea of learning about history.
What happens when the fighting stops? When the men stop fighting, it seems the women have only just begun.
★★★★★
Reviewed by West End Wilma
