Once upon a time in our solar system there was a war. And it was the scariest war--and that is what The Iliad was about. It was called the Trojan War. Paris took a girl from Menelaus, but the girl wanted to go. A war happened in that country because Paris took her. It was actually a play directed by Steve Wilson at A Red Orchid Theatre. There were boy characters but they were played by girls, and all the female parts were played by Barbies.
At the very beginning, Paris (Nicole Rudakova) and Menelaus (Paola Lehman) were sitting down with a Barbie. They brushed her hair. They didn't share nicely either. I didn’t know that it was Paris and Menelaus. I thought it was just plain girls. I learned that they were not just girls in the middle of the play because I realized those two actors were playing characters and that Paris started the war--kind of a silly war because they are fighting over a girl.
There were two scenes where a Barbie head rose out of the water--it was Achilles’ mother. I liked those scenes. They were so calming and sweet, though the Barbie head was weird. One of the scenes Achilles (Jaiden Fallo-Sauter) needed help from his mother. He needed help so she told him what to do. She was nice to him.
There is a scene with Calchas (Kara Ryan) and Agamemnon (Najwa Joy Brown) and Agamemnon had to trade a girl but he said “Ok, but I’ll need a new girl in exchange for this old girl.” Calchas is telling him what to do about the girl. He wants one of Achilles’ girls, and then Achilles said “You can have one of the girls.” Achilles feels sad because he liked the girl. He stays away from Agamemnon. He didn’t want to fight in the war because he didn’t want to help Agamemnon.
There was an armor scene where Achilles gave Patroclus (Elenna Sindler) his armor so he could go fight. Nestor (Marissa Meo) told Patroclus to go get Achilles’ armor. The Trojans thought Achilles was there because who would usually be wearing Achilles armor? Achilles! I liked how Achilles put the armor on Patroclus. They liked each other--I could tell by how he put on his armor. Hector (Aria Szalai-Raymond) killed Patroclus and then Achilles killed Hector because he killed his friend. When Achilles saw Patroclus was dead he was sad and angry both at the same time.
Scamandrius (Katie Jordan) wanted Hector, his father, to not go to war. Hector said no because he had to work for his country. I felt sorry for the kid because he couldn’t spend as much time with his dad. Hector couldn’t help his wife because he would be in war. I thought Hector felt sad about having to go to war. Hector said “I like to be hated more than loved.” I think he said that because he felt more comfortable in the war than he did at home in his nice warm bed. Maybe he was fighting the war when he was very young, before he got married.
King Priam was played by Melanie Neilan. I liked the Barbie scene that she was in. She did the voices of the Barbies as well. It was funny because King Priam was talking to the Barbies and comforting them. Well, they were actually his wife and daughter-in-law. His wife does a good job comforting Helen. When he talked to the Barbie and he said “Stop crying!” in an angry voice it was funny because I sometimes like funny stuff that is kind of a little mean. But it wasn’t real people at least.
There were these fights that were like real fights but they weren’t--luckily. Almost everybody in the play had a fight because almost everybody in the play actually died. There was a scene where Ajax (Eden Strong) and Odysseus (Madison Pullman) led the war and they had a big battle-fight. They thought it was all good now, but then they had a big battle-fight because Pandarus (Isabella Mugliari) shot Menelaus with an arrow.
At the end Paris was going to shoot a guy--Achilles. His mom told Achilles that his life was almost over anyway.
The costumes were cool. Ajax’s costume was like a fighting costume and had a lot of parts to it. A shirt, a helmet, and some pants. I thought that there weren’t costumes to begin with--because they looked like regular clothes. But some of them were not regular clothes. No. Not at all. Nobody wears a belt with belts on it or a helmet or a robe with a crazy crown now. It made the costumes better because it made them a little cooler.
The director I actually saw in another play (Comedy of Errors) where he actually got stabbed. I think it helped him in this play very much because he was used to seeing people stabbed. It was funny how he chose Barbies to be the girls. Because he didn’t want to disappoint the girls--because some of the girls might want to play girls--that’s why he got Barbies. The girls that wanted to play girls got to play boys, but he didn’t disappoint any of them because none of them got to play girls because they were not Barbies. I think he did a very good job teaching them how to sword fight and how to read their lines. The words that grownups usually use when they are in a play--those are some words that they might need to know before the play actually happens.
You have to like fighting and heroes and wars and Barbies to like this play. I liked the play because I like all those things! I don’t like real wars, but I like fake ones. I like fighting because I like Batman. It should be for ages 4 and up because I think 4 year olds will be able to handle fights. When I was three, I saw my Dad fight and I cried because he died in the play. But when I was 4 I saw some other fights and I was okay.
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