“Community is the antidote to perfectionism”: Creator Gillian Clark unpacks the immersive Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus

Gillian Clark’s wildly inventive Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus, a co-production between Outside the March and Factory Theatre in association with Neworld Theatre, is currently playing to packed houses at Factory Theatre.

Set in Canada, the world-premiere play mashes up the ancient Greek plays of Euripides and the movie musical Grease in order to explore meaty contemporary concerns like the generational divide and inheritance in the age of the climate crisis. The story takes place on the night of the annual Duck ‘n’ Swing dance in New Troy, Canada. Odysseus (Jeff Yung) hatches a death-defying Prom-posal. Nestra (Katherine Cullen) and King Memnon (Sébastien Heins) rendezvous in the Outhouse for some old Summer Lovin’. And Cassandra (Amy Keating) feasts on raw hot dogs while sooth-saying the world’s end. The play also features Liz Der as Hecuba/Penthesilea, Elena Reyes as Andromache/Elektra. Cheyenne Scott as Penelope, and Merlin SImard as Thal/Hermes. Rais Clarke-Mendes, 郝邦宇 Steven Hao and Hannah Wayne-Philips round out the cast.

Directed by Mitchell Cushman and with dramaturgy by Jeff Ho, the show offers Toronto audiences an unprecedented immersive theatre experience. Thanks to more than 100 quick changes, the ensemble of eight actors – each playing multiple roles  – performs two interconnected plays simultaneously. Dividing their time between two adjacent theatre spaces, the actors switch characters and plotlines to maintain both sides of the story at the same time. Half the audience gathers outdoors around the campfire, and the other half cuts a rug in the dance hall, while the actors race back and forth, inhabiting the teenagers of New Troy in one setting and their middle-aged parents in the other. At intermission, audiences switch spaces to experience the other side of the story while  the 50/50 raffle prize increases . . . then the actors repeat their dual performances..

Originally from Kjipuktuk/Halifax and now based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, Clark is a new and necessary voice. A graduate of the National Theatre School’s playwriting program, she is a disabled multidisciplinary theatre creator and the artistic co-director of Keep Good (Theatre) Company. Her plays include The Ruins (developed at Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, and the play on which Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus is based), Let’s Try This Standing, and Adventures (Keep Good (Theatre) Company). She has held residencies with Nightswimming, Outside the March, 2b theatre, and Two Planks and a Passion Theatre. 

Clark is forthright and immensely warm. She spoke with SesayArts Magazine about the genesis of Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus as a commission from Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, the work’s five years development journey, the dynamic collaboration that has brought the production to life — and the significance of community, non-linear time and imperfection.

SM: Can we start with you? What would you like us to know about you and why you chose a career in theatre?

GC: My name is Gillian Clark, a settler of British descent, and a disabled multi-disciplinary theatre artist.  I have a smile that consumes most of my face, resembling a Troll Doll, and scars that cover most of my legs, resembling birch trees. I currently live in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang / Montréal. I got into theatre because I like being in community with others, and making people laugh.  I grew up playing sports, and I love moving towards something larger than myself, with a team.  I love that theatre has the opportunity to create a container in which we collectively and imperfectly stumble towards something impossible.  I write plays to talk about the way the world is, but I aim to come together and practice, even in small imperfect ways, the way we want the world to be. 

SM: Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus sounds delightful and wild, and I’m keen to see it! How did you conceive the idea for the play, and what has the creative and developmental process been like for you?

GC: I am immensely grateful to have been held by this project for the past 5 years. It started as a commission in 2017 from Two Planks and a Passion Theatre to create a one-act play set to be performed around a fire.  After its first run, Mitchell Cushman approached me about the play, and we had a workshop in December 2019.  It’s very rare for a new Canadian play to get a second shot, so I was thrilled to have been contacted.  Originally the play was just about the kids in the town, but together we grew curious about the adults. Outside the March is known for creating large-scale immersive works that often have simultaneous performance spaces, so we began to dream about what it would look like to tell the adults’ half of the story as well. I’ve worked on this project throughout the pandemic.  It was very nourishing to work on a piece that is about community during a time of isolation. Working on Trojan Girls has taught me that community is the antidote to perfectionism.

SM: I’m fascinated when a contemporary playwright like yourself takes ancient source material, like Greek plays, which the majority of modern audiences are unfamiliar with and are part of a western canon that was exalted for too long at the exclusion of other cultures and works. I’m curious to learn about your connection with this source material and how your audience will relate to your use of it.

GC: Part of Trojan Girls is about questioning the form of tragedy, and also the repetition of these western canonical plays, such as The Trojan Women. Something I’ve questioned throughout is: are we the way we are because of the stories we’ve been told, or are our stories this way because of us? To me this feels embedded within the play, the questioning of why these plays, and how has it informed the ways in which I move through the world. 

I will also say, as someone who grew up studying Greek Tragedy in school, I never really knew what they were about.  I’d read a play, or even see a play, and still not get it.  It was actually usually the wikipedia article I’d find most compelling.  The largeness and mysticism of the mythos is very exciting to me, and this is the thing as a playwright I crave to make accessible. I haven’t been precious at all with the source material. Something I like to say… is think of Trojan Girls a bit like SuperSmash Brothers.  You take some stock characters, put them in new configurations and relations to each other, in a different arena, and meaning is created.  Particularly I’m excited about the ways in which you get to see archetypal women from Greek tragedy, who don’t intersect in the source material, be in community with each other.

SM: I read in the press release, “half the audience gathers outdoors around the campfire, and half cuts a rug in the dance hall, while the actors race back-and-forth — inhabiting both the teenagers of New Troy and their middle-aged parents.” How did you come up with this unique structure? What do you hope that the audience understands about the story you’re telling by experiencing it this way?

GC: This was through collaboration with Mitchell Cushman, dramaturg Jeff Ho, Frances Koncan, Makram Ayache, Meghan Speakman, Daniel Oulton, the performers and the many hands that have intersected in the world of New Troy. To me, this form represents the way in which the past, present and future are intertwined, and the number of stories we carry with us into our worlds. I could speak forever about non-linear time, and to me, theatre is the strongest form to represent what it feels like to experience non-linear time in a world that prioritizes the linear. 

SM: What do you hope audiences will think about – or even act on – after experiencing Trojan Girls?

GC: I hope there are parts of the play that might shift into focus two weeks after you’ve seen it.  The piece holds a lot.  There are so many intersecting stories that maybe you’ll need some time away from it to get a few of the puzzle pieces. I also hope that we can collectively grapple with our relationship to perfectionism. Creating this play has taught me to believe community is the antidote to perfectionism. Throughout this process, we (the team) have valued our own mortality, and have defined it as the space and beauty that is created from embracing imperfection. Trojan Girls is an invitation into the joy of this space and the opportunities that arise from this.

SM: The final word is yours. What question didn’t I ask you that you wish I had?

GC: I mostly want to give some love to the entire team behind this project.  The work that is being done on this show is incredible.  I’m working with some of the most talented people I’ve ever met in my life.  I really hope that people come and experience a true ensemble production, which extends beyond the ensemble cast.  There are so many hands at work to make Trojan Girls happen, and I find the act of us all working towards this impossible task, a hopeful one.

Reserve tickets to Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus on factorytheatre.ca.

Ⓒ Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2022