Now we’re in January 2019, it seems like the perfect time to look back at what By Jove did over the last 12 months. 2018 was an exciting year for us, and despite not staging any full shows last year, we still made a lot of exciting creative work and took steps towards what might be our biggest project yet…
Homer’s Women
Our first event of the year was ‘Homer’s Women’, held in March at UCL. This one-off event was organised by Christine Plastow, and grew out of her teaching Homer in translation at UCL. The performance was written and performed by SJ Brady, Sinead Costelloe, Wendy Haines, and Christine Plastow, and consisted of a combination of existing lines from Richmond Lattimore’s poetic translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and new writing by the performers. We wanted to explore the women of Homer’s poems, who are often left behind in the ‘negative space’ around the male heroes who seem to drive the narrative. We took Circe, Thetis, Kalypso, Helen, Penelope, and Andromache on their own journeys, and tried to give them a voice to speak free of the constrictions of the epic tradition. The event was well-received by the audience, who joined in a lively post-show discussion about the power of looking the poems’ narratives from the women’s perspectives, as well as the performers’ processes when working with the source material. You can read our blog post reflecting on the event here.
Orestes and Pylades
In September, we were pleased to begin research and development on our first new project since our Season of Violent Women. It seemed especially fortutious that in this project we would return to a story that we explored in our very first productions, the Oresteia, or the tale of Orestes. We began collaborating with Professor Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, who has carried out research that explores representations of Orestes and his companion Pylades as queer characters. Our first research and development sessions were stimulating and productive, narrowing the scope of our interest to themes of the history of same-sex desire, the importance of storytelling and shared history for community building, and the role of women in stories of same-sex relationships between men. We’re grateful to have received some funding to work on this project from both the Institute of Classical Studies and the Arts Council England. We also are happy to be working with two other collaborators: one new, playwright Sue Blundell, and one with whom we’ve worked previously, musician Vivienne Youel. We’re expecting to take this project a lot further in 2019! You can find out more about our work on the project so far here.
Weaving Women’s Stories
Our second performance event of the year was one of a series of events called ‘Weaving Women’s Stories’, organised by Dr Emma Bridges and Dr Ellie Mackin-Roberts as part of the Being Human Festival of the Humanities. This event was a sort of spiritual successor to Homer’s Women, as it returned to poetic themes around ancient women’s voices. The events were particularly interested in the ways in which weaving and textile work allowed women to tell their stories in the ancient world, and how the same themes continued into the modern world in concepts such as craftivism. By Jove’s SJ Brady and Wendy Haines, along with new collaborator, poet Emily Chow-Kambitsch, presented new poems exploring the stories of ancient women of mythology such as Helen, Penelope, and Philomela, as well as the role of weaving in modern women’s lives. We had a full house, and the audience responded really well to the poems. You can read Wendy Haines’ piece, ‘Helen’, here.
And much more…
We have had a lot going on behind the scenes too this year, which will emerge over 2019. It’s been an important year for our company identity – we’ve rebranded, revamped our website, and also launched our Patreon supporters scheme (go here to check it out). This is a really exciting time for us, and we’re glad you’re along for the ride! Keep checking back on the blog over 2019, as this is where we share all of our big news – and do follow us on twitter @ByJoveTheatre for more regular thoughts and updates. Here’s to another year of making exciting, thought-provoking art!
