Trojan Girls embraces the live-and-in-person future of theatre — safely and with a twist

The era of pandemic theatre will be known for a few key signatures and buzz words: live-streamed, outdoor and socially distanced, digital pivots, audiences of one or one pod, bubbled seating. But what theatre makers are grappling with now is the question of how we will define the not-quite-but-almost-out-of-the-pandemic era of live performance. Can it look as adventurous as before, while still acknowledging the inherent risks of gathering as a group of humans sharing the same air?

An upcoming co-production between Factory Theatre and Outside the March Theatre, in association with Neworld Theatre, is taking a major step to finding that answer. From August 3 to 28, Trojan Girls & The Outhouse of Atreus, a new play by Canadian playwright Gillian Clark, is taking over two spaces in Toronto's historic Factory Theatre building and embracing the unparalleled live-and-in-person quality of theatre in a way not seen in the city since pre-pandemic days.

Directed by Mitchell Cushman (artistic director of Outside the March and known for over a decade of immersive, site-specific productions across Canada, New York City and London), the production will split each audience in half as two separate but connected stories play out simultaneously in two locations — the Factory Studio, indoors, and the Factory Courtyard outside (featuring set design by Anahita Debonehie, lighting by Jareth Li and sound by Heidi Chan). After intermission, the audiences change locations, and the same stories replay — but the cast for both stories remains the same: in real time, a cast of eight actors literally leap from between locations, switching characters and plotlines, amid backstage chaos unseen by their public spectators. 

Announced today, those intrepid actors are Katherine Cullen, Liz Der, Sébastien Heins, Amy Keating, Elena Reyes, Cheyenne Scott, Merlin Simard, and Jeff Yung.

"When were working on the show prior to the pandemic, what we were excited about then is the same as what we're excited about now in that it really harnesses the live, event-like nature of theatre and what is possible when you when you gather people together for a live event," says Cushman, who started developing the script and production concept with Clark in 2019. "And now, when we were prioritizing what we wanted to return to live in-person offerings with, it would be that thing that only theatre can do, where the power of the story happened somewhere between the audience and the actors and the space between them."

Cushman and Outside the March were among the first Toronto theatre companies to employ artists during the shutdown with a series of pandemic-proof remote telephone plays called The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries, so they're accustomed to the challenges of producing in the pandemic and the elimination of in-person audiences. But opening up again didn't mean an immediate return to past practices. Trojan Girls & The Outhouse of Atreus will incorporate key learnings from the past two years in terms of health and safety.

Using the last days of summer, half the audience will remain outside unless rained out, in which case the audience will move indoors to the main theatre space. When outdoors, audience members will wear headphones to ensure the actors are heard clearly by everyone — no matter their hearing ability — in the middle of downtown Toronto. And since the structure of the play splits audiences of up to 100 in half, the majority of the time spent inside is only shared with 50 people at the most. They're also employing four understudy cast members in case of any illnesses, which was cost-prohibitive and not standard practice for independent or venued theatre companies prior to the pandemic. 

"We're really trying to be inventive and wide-eyed about the fact that COVID is still with us," Cushman says. "It's been hard to produce work over the last couple years and be aware of the inherent compromises that have been necessary to keep everyone involved in those productions safe. Those realities still exist, but we can still get back to the work we were doing before."

In a similar way, the play itself is reflective of the pandemic, but wasn't created specifically in response to it. Montreal-based Clark began writing it while attending the National Theatre School. The original version, commissioned by Nova Scotia's Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, was an adaptation of Euripides's ancient Greek tragedy The Trojan Women, except it was set in 2009 and fused with the 1978 movie musical Grease. In Trojan Girls & The Outhouse of Atreus, the action moves from Greece to New Troy, Canada, at the annual Duck n' Swing dance; the parents are indoors on the dance floor, and the kids are outside at the bonfire, hatching a prom-posal plan. Funny and irreverent, yes, but the play retains its themes of displacement, cause-and-effect dynamics, generational responsibility, and anxiety over the end of the world. In 2009, that meant an oncoming understanding of climate change. In 2022, it's that and much, much more. 

"I feel the play has actually become about a group of human beings who are actually just trying to do their best at being mortal. They're trying to find hope that we are doing our best in the moment, and hopefully things will be a bit better for the next generation," says Clark from Montreal. "With the running back and forth in the play, it's never going to go perfectly in the same way that life will never play out in the way that you plan, so how can we accept that and embrace the beauty of being mortal? Of trying to do an impossible task?"

When we were prioritizing what we wanted to return to live in-person offerings with, it would be that thing that only theatre can do, where the power of the story happened somewhere between the audience and the actors and the space between them.- Mitchell Cushman, Outside the March

Live theatre never disappeared during the pandemic, but as theatres reopen and audiences return to in-person performances, Cushman believes the offer can't rely on what sold shows pre-COVID-19. 

"The risk was always there, but we didn't think about it in the same way," he says. "Personally, that inspires me to want to go to live events, but it also raises the bar of what I'm looking for those live events to offer."

"We've all spent a lot of time realizing that entertainment can be a great diversion in our lives when it's easily accessible at home and on our phones or however we want to receive it. I think there's a different role for theatre to play: [it should be] challenging in a way that feels worth the risk and worth any of the inherent complications around doing this work."

Trojan Girls & The Outhouse of Atreus runs from August 3-28, 2022 at Factory Theatre. Tickets range from free to $75. More information can be found at factorytheatre.ca.