In her sophomore offering, playwright Ava Pickett clips the wings of thousands of years of epic poetry by showing us the unfiltered aftermath of Helen of Troy's return to Sparta.
And yet, the burden falls to the feminine perspective to bring the truths of these far flung battles home to roost.
Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy is set on the night Helen (Michelle Dockery) returns after 10 years of battle, reuniting with her childhood best friend Cee (Laura Aikman). Over the course of the night, the pair discuss old wounds, fractured loyalties and which of them made the wrong choice in staying or going.
Fights become riots, the battlegrounds of Troy become Preston and Kent, and the audacity of Paris and Helen's relationship becomes all the more loaded when Paris is dubbed "foreign." Nothing could have pulled the so-called glory of the Trojan War down to earth more for a British audience than swapping swords for petrol bombs and conquests for sexual assault.
Ethan Moorhouse plays the role of Messenger, and perfectly encapsulates the ethos of a Greek chorus. His monologues fold the audience into the story and are a masterclass of language, as they bring lyrical verses about gods and earth into contact with sticky pubs and hard marriages – I cannot overemphasise how easy it is for the mixing of classical and modern language to be cringeworthy and this wasn't at all.
Every female character feels like someone you know and the biggest power is how each one of the makes you turn inward and think. If I found a character annoying I wondered what influence was lurking behind that feeling, if I sympathised with one of them I wondered if that reflected what I would do in this situation.
The realness of it was this show's biggest strength but the thing is, I found myself too often thinking about the play than actually enjoying it. While the dialogue was perfect, the play still struggled to really grip me and immerse me in the goings-on.
The same can be said for the ending, which left me feeling utterly bereft – although I expect that was Pickett's intention. After all, Helen of Troy is a story that's lasted for millennia, perhaps she's saying it's time to cut it off and move on. All that fuss over just one woman choosing to leave.
Make sure you also check out the best pre-theatre dinner London, our guide to the best immersive dining London experiences, and how to get cheap theatre tickets.
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