Taking place in an intimate, darkened room, Jo Kelen’s powerful spoken-word performance takes her audience through the story of Homer’s Iliad and the events that precede it, with personal emphasis on the romantic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. She does the story clear justice, expertly weaving together the romance between the Greek heroes in a way that draws on a range of mythical sources, simultaneously infused with her own creativity.
The experience of stepping into the church adds to the mystique, and Kelen’s simultaneous detachment from her audience and devotion to the story she is telling creates the feeling of watching the narrative told in a way it would been in Homer’s time.
The appeal of Homer’s timeless story bases itself on the strength of the emotion felt throughout. Kelen is talented and invocative speaker and though she paces the book-long narrative carefully, the story can get lost in parts. She presents it with the seeming incentive in mind to portray it to an audience not already familiar with the narrative, and therefore emphasis on the way the story unfolds is crucial. It’s a shame that this is slightly lost, along with emotional weight of the ending; the performance begins impactful with emotion, and slightly flatlines at the end.
However, for a Classics lover it is a must-see. The presentation of the long and convoluted narrative is beautifully crafted and the characters leap into fully-formed beings from simply her words. The fierce emotion comes through in Kelen’s words, with the intense eye contact she makes with audience, with the shifting of body language to represent each stage of the story.
In Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad, she writes “You already know the story. You will die. Everyone you love will also die. You will be sad and angry. You will weep.” The best part of Kelen’s spoken word adaptation is that she has a succinct understanding of this. Her adaptation understands the depth behind the narrative to be more than a simple romance, but a commentary on the themes of grief, love, and mortality than run through the timeless story.
Image courtesy of Brian Wilson, provided to The Student as press material.