"Helen" by Ten Thousand Things at The Capri Theater

Six years after taking over as Artistic Director of Ten Thousand Things from founder Michelle Hensley, Marcela Lorca is directing her final show with the company before moving on. For this, she returns to one of her favorites - Greek tragedy. Specifically, she worked with playwrights John Barton and Kenneth Cavander on their adaptation of Euripides' Helen, a different retelling of the tragedy of the Trojan War than we usually hear. This adaptation, Marcela's direction and choreography, and this uber talented cast make this two thousand year old play feel refreshingly modern and relevant. And don't let the word tragedy fool you; this Helen is full of lightness and humor and music, albeit tinged with tragedy, specifically around the senselessness and destruction of war. My theater blogger friend asked me if this was a must see, and I said - of course it is, it's Ten Thousand Things! Marcela Lorca is concluding her tenure at TTT on a high note, and I look forward to how this uniquely special company created by Michelle Hensley continues into the future. In the meantime, you can see Helen at The Capri Theater, Open Book, United Methodist Church, or various locations around the community through November 10.

As per usual, this piece does a wonderful job of distilling the complex world of the Greek gods into something any audience can understand. I won't go into the details here, but the premise is that Helen "the face that launched a thousand ships" was not really in Troy with Paris, prompting her husband Menelaus to start a brutal war. She was instead used by the gods in the games that they play, and sent into exile in Egypt while a phantom imposter Helen went to Troy. The war is now over, and Helen is so bored, and so sad. She longs to be reunited with her husband and return home. Her wish is granted when Menelaus, returning home from the war, is shipwrecked on the shore. At first he doesn't believe Helen, but eventually the couple is happily reunited and concocts a play to leave Egypt against the wishes of the gods and the king who wants to marry her.

Helen (George Keller) and the chorus
(photo by Tom Wallace)

In the tradition of Greek theater, there is a chorus who explains some of the action of the play and provides commentary. In this case, much of it is singing commentary, with original music composed by JD Steele. The seven-person chorus (Isabella Dawis, Lynnea Doublette, Bradley Greenwald, John Jamison II, Olivia Kemp, Dominic Shiro, and Michael Wolfe) sings and moves as one, and most of them also play other roles in the story in a scene or two. Listening to their voices joined together in harmony, unmiked in a small space a few feet in front of you, is an absolute joy. So too is watching George Keller in the title role; she makes Helen really funny and modern and relatable. Rounding out the cast is veteran #TCTheater actor Bill McCallum making his TTT debut as Menelaus and accompanying the chorus on guitar (with Isabella Dawis on multiple instruments). Everyone in this cast is so much fun to watch, present and playful (as required by the TTT model), and really reveling in this kind of "all the lights on" storytelling.

One of the things that makes TTT unique is that they take their shows out into the community to people who don't normally have access to theater - prisons, treatment centers, homeless shelters, rural areas. And they perform for paid audiences the same way they perform at a prison - in a fully lit room, with minimal sets and costumes, in a small square space on the floor surrounded by a couple of rows of chairs on all sides. No bells or whistles, no tricks, just pure theatrical entertainment. A few crates representing a grave, some stools both short and tall, and flags surrounding the space are all that we need to set the scene, our imaginations do the rest. The chorus is dressed in similar gauzy white and pale blue long cardigans that tie in the front, with character specific clothing underneath to be revealed when necessary. And of course, they also wear the traditional masks with a charming sort of paper mâché look. Menelaus, after his long journey, is dressed in ripped and disheveled finery, later changing into the fancy denim, while Helen wears a shimmering blue dress that looks as if it were made of the waves. And also a flowy white one, and the black of mourning. It's all thoughtful and simple, but effective. (Set design by Joel Sass, costume design by Sonya Berlovitz.)

If the real Helen wasn't really in Troy, then the brutal war was fought for no reason. One can't help but be reminded of other brutal senseless wars happening in our world, with seemingly no end in sight. There's a particularly poignant song about how silly and stupid it is for humans to try to solve problems with the spear. It never ends well. The play also deals with the idea of perception vs. reality (Helen is worried about what people will think of her when she goes home), and what really is the truth, also very relatable in today's world. And that's what Ten Thousand Things does - tell an ancient story and make it feel new and relevant, all while engaging the audience like no one else, and transporting us on a magical journey into the heart of the story.