The advent of April brings with it the Center for Creative Works’ yearly Dionysia project, and this year’s incarnation, “Ilium,” tackles the subject of war and loss with Homer’s epic, “The Iliad,” as a frame within which to explore those ideas.
The City Dionysia, first held in Athens nearly 500 years before the common era, was a city-wide celebration of winter’s end that featured comedic and dramatic performances written by such luminous playwrights as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
Their performances captivated, entertained and instructed the most artistically significant city and citizens of its era. The center — in conjunction with The Honors College and led by center-director and Honors College professor John Harvey — hopes that the production of “Ilium” can serve all three of those purposes for the University and the city.
“It’s all happening now,” Harvey said at the “Ilium” rehearsal to the actors, musicians and writers.
That is why “The Iliad,” a poem first sung nearly 2,900 years ago, is not simply an archaeological curiosity. It is alive in a deep and profound way.
“I began to think of “The Iliad” as a poem we’re constantly living,” Harvey said.
The text of “Ilium” is comprised of “Iliad” excerpts and personal war accounts by Honors College students and faculty, interwoven in a poetic tapestry bound together with pieces of Carl Von Clausewitz’s “On War,” and Harvey’s lyrical segues and scenes. Jennifer Sommers of the School of Theatre and Dance is directing and choreographing the production, while vocal performance senior Alyssa Weathersby composed the music and will conduct.
“Ilium” is a synthesis of diverse talents and interests, gathered together under the umbrella of the center, but the heterogeneous melange had its genesis in a singular story of war, told to Harvey by one of his own students.
“I remember I had an Honors College student for an oral exam who had talked about being in the push at Fallujah,” Harvey said. “And then I remembered another student who had lost her father in Bosnia. I began to realize that there were students who had experiences of war directly or through their families.”
Many of “Ilium”’s anecdotes and accounts are harrowing. The stories are as violent and brutal as they are intimate and personal. Harvey is adamant that this visceral reality is a vital necessity. “There is no other way to truthfully render an artistic statement about the experience of war,” Harvey said.
“Always,” Harvey said, “whatever you bury doesn’t stay buried.”
In “Ilium,” the coffins, the bodies, the agony and the suffering of war, are not only visible, but are a presence that must be met and engaged.
“It’s important to hear and to say to the people who have fought or who have survived, ‘It’s important for us to hear you,’” Harvey said.
The center’s students performing in “Ilium” will try to say just that when the production opens later this month.
All “Ilium” show times are at 8 pm, and all showings are free admission, though interested parties should RSVP through the Honors College to ensure seating.
The “Ilium” will open for an invitation-only performance at 8 p.m. on April 26 before giving general admission performances April 27 and 28 at the Rockwell Pavilion. Then on May 2 and 3, Ilium is at Frenetic Theater and moves on May 4 to G Gallery before finally concluding with a May 5 final performance on May 5 at Khon’s.
Students are encouraged to attend and engage with the loss and brokenness of war, its aftermath, and the stories that arise from both. However bitter or heartrending, the stories are important to hear.
