SUPPLIANT AND DEMAND
Looking for a thoroughly pleasant evening on the banks of the Mystic River? Head for Chelsea’s PORT Park and a transfixing performance of The Suppliant Women, by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Dating back about 2500 years, it’s one of the world’s oldest known plays, brought into the present moment by award-winning playwright David Greig with music by John Browne.
Directed by Apollinaire artistic director Danielle Fauteux Jacques, this bilingual production has a cast of some fifty people. While it is staged in the grassy amphitheater of an outdoor park, the space is quite small (the seating area on Saturday evening was full; my estimate is that some 200 people were on blankets and folding chairs). The evening began with a series of well-performed pre-show acts by different members of the cast (including numbers from such hits as Urinetown, Kinky Boots, and Six as well as Spanish-language classics from Encanto, Celia Cruz, and Selena) as the audience moved about to purchase and enjoy food and beverages. Then the play itself was introduced by Paola Ferrer with Brooks Reeves humorously mis-translating Ferrer’s Spanish-language account of the complex myth of a love affair between the god Zeus and the woman Io and several generations of their offspring, which included cows as well as humans.
Then a hush fell over the audience as the Women’s Chorus, a group of twenty-five women brandishing sticks adorned with white wool entered from both sides of the performance area to a drumming rhythm that evoked an ancient civilization.
With lighting as an effective means of defining the space and directing audience attention (production designed by Victoria Verrecchial), the women began to tell their story through ritualized chanting and dancing (choreographer Audrey Johnson). The river in the background was appropriate, because these women have arrived in the Grecian city of Argos from Egypt, across the sea. Their sticks with white wool represent a plea for asylum, and their chanting is a prayer to Zeus, from whom the women are descended.
You guided our boat here
Zeus we need your protection
Soon we will see them on the horizon
A boat full of rapists.
These maidens, who have taken vows of chastity, have fled Egypt to avoid forced marriage to their cousins. Seeking sanctuary in a temple dedicated to Zeus, they are determined to maintain their autonomy over their own bodies.
Most of the lines in the play are recited by this chorus, alternating English and Spanish every few lines (according to the 2020 U.S. census, Chelsea’s population is a little over 67% Hispanic or Latino). The effect is beautiful and hypnotic. The women are costumed by Charlotte Gagliardi and Mia Watanabe in brightly colored shirts and pants of different styles. The one element they share are long black sashes tied around their waists. They call on Zeus with clapping and chanting, accompanied by drums and the haunting strains of a clarinet (music director David Reiffel; musicians Aneesh Kashalikar, Laura Jordan, Stephen Guerra). Chorus leaders Charleen Andujar, Parker Jennings, and Pearl Scott deliver impassioned pleas that express the desperation of the women to make their own choices and avoid forced marriages. When Zeus fails to respond, the entire chorus begins a frenzy of ululation, furiously waving their long black sashes.
Ferrer, now as Danoas, the father of the virgin women, and Reeves, as king of Argos, negotiate over the fate of the women. The ships of men are on the way. The king is reluctant to turn the women over to their would-be captors, yet he fears war with Egypt if he fails to do so. It’s only when the women threaten to use their black sashes in a mass suicide, an act that will enrage Zeus and be a blot on Argos, that he turns the question over to the citizens.
The Men’s Chorus, led by their Herald (Andres Molano) arrives full of threats and demands, performing their own ritual dancing and chanting, but the king puts them off.
You’ll soon find out what real men drink
Greek wine, not weak Egyptian beer.
Even so, the threat of war remains. Some of the citizens begin to suspect the women of bringing loose morals into their midst, and the question of what to do about them is put to the Citizens Chorus of Argos (another group of about a dozen men and women); Will they risk a war in the service of justice and mercy? Tension builds until the question is resolved in this intriguing and moving performance of just under ninety minutes.
photos by Danielle Fauteux Jacques
The Suppliant Women
Apollinaire Theatre Company
in partnership with Teatro Chelsea & The City of Chelsea Dept. of Housing & Community
PORT Park, 99 Marginal St in Chelsea, MA
Fri and Sat at 7:30
live music, entertainment, and a picnic in the pop-up Beer Garden at 6
in case of rain, call 617.887.2336 to check status
ends on August 17, 2024
for tickets (free), visit Apollinaire; no RSVP necessary, but it helps
