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The Suppliant Women, Aeschylus’ 2500 year old play (reimagined by acclaimed playwright David Greig) tells the story of the fifty daughters of Danaos fleeing Egypt for asylum in the Greek city-state of Argos. It is not war, poverty, or violence they are fleeing – they are seeking escape from men, and marriages void of love. Actors Touring Company has been visiting the cities of the British Isles, including Edinburgh, Belfast and Manchester, using local volunteers to perform in this timely piece. This Dublin Theatre Festival play allowed the women of our fair city to shine.
Credit must be given to the authenticity of the ancient theatre experience. While, of course, the proscenium of the Gaiety could not replicate the Greek outdoors, the show paid homage to Dionysus by commencing with a bottle of red wine being poured along the stage. Choosing choral ode to relay the story with scarce dialogue, the accompanying music by Callum Armstrong and Ben Burton transported the audience to the city-gates of Argos with simple percussion. The aulos instrument, a sound I had never experienced before, was beautiful, conducting a hybrid of tribal and Mediterranean beats.
A slight disappointment for me was the realisation that the chorus was in fact not played by fifty women, but rather by about twenty. This did not deter from the efficacy of their voice, of their fierce sound and synchronised movement en masse. The women became their boat, their libations, their pleas. Clothed in colourful modern dress, they each retained a sense of individuality, but it was their harmony of dance, song and awareness of their agency which was so moving. Movement leader Sarah Johnston and choreographer Sasha Milavic Davies brought poignancy to the chaos; initially, the physicality of the women’s calls for Zeus and Io felt a little overwhelming, but it was soon embraced.
The beauty of this play was in its teaching, bringing to light the similarities between the plight of today’s refugees, and women who suffer under the patriarchy, with that of these fifty women. Despite an unclarified character change and a somewhat evident cast of volunteers rather than skilled actors, the play raised questions about the ideals of democracy, the responsibility of humanity, the concept of virginity, and the recurring question of whether to trust women or not. On the eve of March for Choice (September 30), the intensity of themes felt less like ancient hyperbole, and more like issues we need to dissolve today.
