Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Within a secluded cavern, Ancient Greece’s first love poet laments her erasure from history, while a chorus girl named Atthis is seduced into a modern-day Sapphic romance.
SAPPHO …in 9 fragments was originally performed by its author Jane Montgomery Griffiths in Melbourne in 2008 at The Stork Hotel and 2010 at the Malthouse Theatre.
In 2013, a new production was presented by the award-winning Second Skin Theatre at the White Rabbit Theatre in London, England, directed by Jessica Ruano (Canada), featuring Victoria Grove (UK), and designed by Ana Ines Jabares (Spain). This same production tours to Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal in 2013, marking the Canadian premiere of the play.
The historical Sappho from 600 BC has been massively influential as a poet and as a lesbian icon. Plato labeled her the ‘tenth muse’ and she was known as the first poet to focus on human relationships and love, particularly love of women, in her writing. While the word ‘lesbian’ used to refer only to inhabitants of Sappho’s homeland Lesbos, it is now used to describe also ‘women who love women’. Similarly, the word ‘sapphic’ is often attributed to romantic or sexual desire between women.
Sappho …in 9 fragments
by Jane Montgomery Griffiths
Starring Victoria Grove
Directed by Jessica Ruano
Designed by Ana Ines Jabares
Lighting by Sarah Crocker
Sound by Luca Romagnoli
Aerial Work by Jani Nightchild
Graphic Design: DTDStudio
Canadian tour:
Toronto
June 14 & 15
videofag
187 Augusta Avenue
Ottawa Fringe Festival
June 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29
Arts Court Library
2 Daly Avenue
Montreal
June 27 & 28
espace freestanding room
4324 Boulevard Saint-Laurent
For more information visit http://sappho9fragments.wordpress.com.
Photo: Victoria Grove as Sappho. ©2012.
2013-04-03
Toronto: Canadian premiere of “Sappho... in 9 fragments” begins in Toronto June 14