REVIEW: THAT WITCH HELEN at Bridge House Theatre and Jack Studio 3 - 5 September

‘At its heart this is a feminist play which poses some serious questions about the nature of heroism’ ★★★★

Helen of Troy’s is a story which has been fascinating people for centuries but until recently – as in Offenbach’s tuneful romp, La Belle Helene or in Tennyson’s poems it’s all been pretty male orientated. After all she was a sexy prize awarded by three goddesses to Paris, the prince disguised as a shepherd, wasn’t she?

Not in Catie Ridewood’s version, she isn’t. The playwright, who also plays Helen gives us a real flesh and blood woman who falls in love with the charismatic Paris - so much more fun than her ghastly husband Menelaus -  at a diplomatic dinner and goes off with him willingly to Troy. Ridewood, who hatches with her twin Clytemnestra, from a gauze egg rather neatly, tells her story from the moment she settles down as Queen of Sparta to the horror of the ten year besieging of Troy by angry Greeks. She is passionate, caring, frightened and brave and it’s all pretty convincing as she weaves in and out of lines which are almost Iliad translations, to verse of her own and to everyday speech which sometimes makes for humour. Telling her awful mother-in-law to “fuck off” is a good moment for example as is praying to Zeus and addressing him as “Dad”.

It’s a three handed play with two strong actors in a whole range of support roles. Lorraine Yu is very funny as the gruff, balls-scratching Menelaus and does a fine turn as a charismatic story teller, among other things. Sophia Mastrosavaki is sexy as Paris and both these actors are hilarious in their brief cameos of a series of Greek heroes – posturing with fake scrotum stuffed into their shorts. They’re both vocally skilled too, giving their various characters distinctive voices. The play’s opening, however, in which they play a pair of stylised muses scattering feathers, falls a bit flat.

At its heart this is a feminist play which poses some serious questions about the nature of heroism. In a situation in which women are supposed to be secondary as the men fight it out on the windy plains and everyone demonises Helen (there’s a bitterly fierce monologue in this play which stresses that) we are made to think, and think hard, about the women and the hell they are going through – as women have done, at the behest of men down the ages for different reasons. The end of That Witch Helen with its chorus of “Cleopatra, we hear you. Joan, we hear you. Anne, we hear you, Diana, we hear you …” (and more) takes one by surprise and is richly moving.

That Witch Helen

Writer: Catie Ridewood

Director: Janette Eddisford

Running time: 75 mins without interval

This show is part of the SE Fest 2024 at Bridge House Theatre and Jack Studio which runs until 14 September

Susan Elkin, journalist, author and former education editor at The Stage has been reviewing plays for 30 years.