UR Players' "Trojan Women: A Love Story" to open Thursday

The UR Players open their season with "Trojan Women: A Love Story," a play that fuses Greek tragedy, opera, pop culture and aspects of the contemporary world, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The show was written by Charles Mee and directed by Dorothy Holland, theatre department chairwoman.

It features the Greek play as a frame, but incorporates snippets from modern culture, Holland said. The play mixes everything about men, women, war, violence and its masculinity, she said.

"This is not a production that is talking heads," Holland said. "This is theater. This is something that TV and film cannot do at all. This is purely theatrical with a big story, big passions and characters."

Holland chose this play because she thought it was relevant to today's issues, Becky Silverman, the stage manager, said.

"The beauty of Charles Mee's take on Trojan Women is that he has tried to make it more relevant to today," Silverman said. "He has taken the plight of women during war and shown us how some things never change."

Chelsea Radigan, the play's assistant director, said she had researched the show during the summer to understand the Greek framework, and said the play was so complicated because it was very hard to classify. "It is totally different than anything I have ever done," Radigan said, "just because it is so hard to pin down.

"The premise is an ancient Greek play that they have made modern. One moment they will talk about Achilles and then the next one they will be talking about dildos. It is very sexual and raunchy."

The play is also interesting, Holland said, because of the incorporation of movement. The UR Players have learned a lot about movement from Matthew Thornton, a new dance faculty member and the show's choreographer, Holland said.

Senior Kimi Hugli said her dance movements in the show were like those in Cirque du Soleil. She has been working with aerial silks and will be almost flying in those silks, she said.

This is the first time the theater at Richmond has ever incorporated aerial skills or elements into a production, Holland said. The silk is used in interesting ways, she said, and it is almost like visual poetry.

"Kimi is in there a lot, making friends with that silk, climbing it and at one point she looks like she is flying over the ground," Holland said.

Alex Wiles, who has a lead role, said that this had been unlike any other theater experience she had ever had. Wiles said: "This show has been by far the strangest and most ensemble-based show that I have ever done.

"When I come here we are in yoga pants and tank tops on the floor rolling around. It is very different. It is much more of a physical approach to acting. You learn the movement and you let the emotion come from the movement that you are doing."

The show is also very different because it is set in an alley theater, Hugli said. "You are watching the show, but also watching other audience members watching the show, so it is very a interactive show," she said.

This is not a performance where the audience walks out of the theater with one meaning, Holland said. There is a lot to see and hear, she said.

"Every audience member brings his or her own life and understanding to the theater," Holland said, "and hopefully this production is put together in certain ways that it inspires you to make meaning out of it."

Wiles said: "For both actors and audience it is a truly unique theater experience in terms of the range of emotions. It lives somewhere in between being a play and a musical. It is both with a broad appeal."

Contact reporter Catherine Crystal at catherine.crystal@richmond.edu