Ottawa Fringe 2013. Sappho in 9 Fragments by Jane Montgomery Griffiths

Sappho in 9 fragments by Jane Montgomery Griffiths, performed by  Victoria Grove

The public has to realize that this is a theatrical adaptation of Sappho’s poetic fragments so don’t expect to hear a reproduction of her writings. If that is clear at the outset, it is much easier to appreciate the show. A poetic transgression produced by multiple voices, gives new meaning to Sappho’s writings in today’s world. This performance within a performance, spoken by the silken and sensual voice(s) of Victoria Grove, incarnates two couples, whose poetic expressions of desire and beauty produce a portrait of the writer, so misunderstood over the centuries. Through these voices who relate their own passionate encounters with a blinding object of desire, we move between Ancient Greece and the modern world, to the point where space, time, voices and the original texts blend and Sappho the legend emerges as an eternal force of enormous power. Some of the language is magnificent. The staging is striking, even hypnotic as the poet/goddess, first appears as a fluttering shadow, murmuring her incantations in Greek, seemingly a return to the platonic vision of reality as it is reflected on the wall of that cave. Plato is immediately transgressed as Sappho removes the curtains and reveals her physical presence to all, thus imposing her own revised image of reality, which is what we then see as the actress twists herself around the lengths of twine, as she moves between those imaginary spaces in time. Greatly enhanced by the set, by the lighting and by the sound design that brings us back to the origins of time, the sensual voice of this superb actress, becomes a presence that goes far beyond the text.

See it in the Arts court Library.

Directed by Jessica Ruano

Set design, Ana Ines Jabares

Lighting, Sarah Crocker

Sound, Luca Romagnoli