Freeing Cassandra's Voice

A Guest Blog by Playwright, Chris Rivera

Two years ago my play, Sisters of Semele (we TTF staff members really do like alliteration), received a full NYC production. It is a short one act play that works as a prequel to the Bacchae. Directed by Christina Sheehan, who is currently directing the staged reading of Curse of Cassandra, it played alongside the Bacchae as a sort of scene one. It was my first play in heightened language and focused on the struggle of the royal women of Thebes as they manipulated the throne with lies, rumors, and the acts that eventually lead to Semele's death. Short as it was, it still explored themes that speak to the modern world - like classism, skepticism of news and religion, sexual scandal, and women struggling against a patriarchy that does not value them the way it does men - all through the lens of a mythical world.

I knew I must continue writing in this world and in this language. I considered many possible follow-ups within the wide cannon of Greek myths. I quickly decided two things: 

One, I would tell another story that classical theater had not. I didn’t want to write my own version of the Odyssey or Medea. I feared an audience would be so distracted by the creative and stylistic deviations from the established play that they wouldn’t fully appreciate the piece for what it is.

Two, I would again focus on a female protagonist. When I watch period pieces, I am always drawn more to the female characters. In order to go after what they want, they often have to fight the structure of their society itself. That’s an enemy far more challenging and interesting than Charybdis. I don’t often empathize with the swashbuckler. Perhaps it’s due to my being part of a minority or growing up smaller than the other kids. I never felt like I had a place in a society of warriors and kings. As I write this, I realize two of the men in Cassandra feel the same. I don’t show the mighty warrior Hector, because we know what he is. Instead, we see the brothers that must live in his shadow.

For many people, if they've heard of Cassandra of Troy (almost my title), they only know she was a woman who could see the future, but was cursed to never have her visions believed. 

She saw the fall of her country and the mistakes her family would make that would lead to their destruction. She knew the Walls of Troy would fall. She told them. She warned them. The people she loved did not hear her. They wrote her off as a madwoman. 

Perhaps her curse is so memorable because we will all come to play her role in our lifetime, knowing what is best for a loved one, yet forced to watch them fail terribly. 

Some may remember her being a priestess, a princess, or that it was Apollo that cursed her when he could not have his way with her. Though the details of what truly happened between her and Apollo vary depending who tells the tale. 

Even for those who love theatre, her story has received little attention. Cassandra speaks on only 4 pages each of Trojan Woman and in the entire Orestia. Just 8 pages of text. She has only 13 lines in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, and two of those are "Cry Trojans" called out from off-stage.  

Cassandra’s story was calling calling out to me. She needed more of a voice, and so I started at the beginning. I knew there would be two major choices to make, two places where myths varied, and anyone who knows them has an opinion. Firstly was whether Helen of Troy was a victim of kidnapping, or a woman who ran away for love. Secondly was whether Cassandra refused all of Apollo’s advances, or if she traded her body for the gift of prophecy and then refused him. That had to be the first scene. Without giving too much away, I knew I myself would be completely unhappy with an answer that was too simple; it had to be more complex than that. So I wrote the first scene: Cassandra, a princess who chooses to become a priestess and is confronted with the temptation of power. I read every classical version of the myth and forged my own, melding together the fractured pieces of myth with my own feelings on consent, duty, desire, and the will to create one’s own path in the world.

I took this piece and brought it to the place that would be its home for much of this almost-two-year process. 

Turn to Flesh Productions, as you may already be aware, is a theatre company that focuses on new works in classical styles. I had been attending the Muse Program, an open workshop where playwrights can bring pieces in, and talented actors would jump into roles, allowing playwrights to get a real sense of what the work will be like on its feet. 

I brought in my first scene to TTF’s Muse Program, gave a bit of character description to my actors, set the scene, and let them play. Theatre does not become theatre until there is a live audience. There is a necessary connection between the performers and those viewing it, so I must thank not only those first three actors, but also that first audience. There truly was magic in that room between the lines, gasps, and laughter. There was the true beginning of Curse of Cassandra. 

After the performance, the group reaction seemed to be: “Was that it? Or is there more? Please tell me that there will be more!” Without that evening, I don’t know if I would have had the same intense drive to complete the play without TTF’S Muse Program. I wrote the entire first act chronologically, added a scene later, and then brought each new scene to Muse. I got incredibly valuable feedback and some new faces every time. Some would hear every new scene, and so many different actors inhabited these characters. So much of Curse of Cassandra was developed in Muse with Turn to Flesh, and I am so grateful to be able to have a staged reading with them now.

This play has been almost two years in the making, and I would not have rushed it further. I am so thrilled to have a wonderfully talented and passionate team working on it now, and I look forward to sharing it with the public.

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