Phaedra’s love

Blowjobs, betrayal, and lots of blood

By: Logan Robins

From Jan. 28 to 30 at the Bus Stop Theatre on Gottingen, the Dalhousie Theatre Society presented “Phaedra’s Love,” written by Sarah Kane. I caught up with some of the creative team and cast to ask them some burning questions about the new play.

Logan: Lara, I’m wondering what motivated you to propose this show to be put on by the DTS?

Lara [Director]: I did “Three Sisters” last year, towards the end of it I started to get really sick of it, and we were reading some Sarah Kane in my production Dramaturge class, and I was like, oh! I wonder what else she’s done…Then I was like, oh, that’s a good amount of oral sex for a play. Now we’re here.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters you play in “Phaedra’s Love”?

Mike [Priest + Man #1]: The main character I play is “the priest,” he comes to the main character, Hippolytus, when he [Hippolytus] is essentially on death row. He [the priest] is just trying to absolve his soul, he is in prison, so the priest goes there as a way to try and get him to confess his sins.

Yasmin [Woman #2]: My character is “woman #2,” she is a townsperson, who shows up to the riot at the end of the play. She is very angry with Hippolytus, and she basically wants to…seek revenge for Phaedra’s death because Phaedra meant so much to the community and the town.

Kaelen [Phaedra]: I’ve been thinking about the role of Phaedra a lot lately… She’s a desperate and twisted character, sort of what the ideal women is. She’s maternal, but she’s also sexual, but she tries to hide that… It’s difficult to play for a number of reasons. I haven’t really told my grandparents about the content of the show, because she [Phaedra] blows people on stage, and that’s not really something that’s okay to do… The hardest thing playing her is that she’s constantly having an anxiety attack, so trying to divide me not having an attack, from my character, is…interesting…She’s a fun character — but, really fucked up.

Cory, can you tell me a bit about the challenges of playing the character of Hippolytus in the show?

Cory [Hippolytus]: Well, first and foremost, there is…what happens to him. It’s no secret that he gets blown a few times, he has to masturbate on stage… Just the personality that he has is so…If you took all the bad traits that anyone has had ever, and put them into one person, that’s basically who it is. It’s also challenging because there isn’t much acting, because he is just so…apathetic.

This show is fairly well known for containing material you wouldn’t expect to see on stage. A lot of things that some people may deem as “inappropriate.” What was your first reaction to reading the script?

Mike [Priest + man #1]: I was definitely kind of like, well…okay…that’s on stage? As you said, I have heard a bit about it, so I knew that it was going to be sort of grotesque, and an “only for adults sort of thing”…It follows Greek tragedies, and the sort of gruesome actions that usually happen off stage, and Sarah Kane, the playwright, puts it all on stage.

Yasmin [woman #2]: I was definitely very surprised at how edgy and out there it was. As we got to rehearsing and really knowing the characters and the story, I got a lot more comfortable with it, and started to really understand the story.

Mike [Priest + man #1]: I guess the most difficult thing has been, because it’s such an abhorrent play, in that way, that it displays violence and sex…The most difficult part has been getting to know all the cast members and getting comfortable with each other, to get the best out of the script…After the first few weeks, it got a lot easier.

Sansom, as a graduate of the Dalhousie acting program, how would you say this show compares to the countless others you’ve performed over the years?

Sansom [Theseus]: This show is great [because] everyone who is here really wants to be here…It’s nice to see everyone putting their all into it. It’s nice not having the predisposition of seeing each other every day in class… With this, everyone brings something new to the table, which is really exciting.

Christine, how would you say this show compares to some of the other DTS projects you’ve worked on?

Christine [Assistant Director]: It’s an edgy take, and I feel like Dalhousie Theatre Society has never done something that’s gone in this direction. I think it’s a good step because it shows what are students are capable of, it shows the range we have, and totally talented individuals!… I think it has a lot to offer in its artistic vision, and Lara’s artistic vision.