Live theater owns many wonders. One of them is its uncommon ability to slip the audience into the skin and minds of the characters you meet on stage. Athena, now playing at Glencoe’s Writers Theater, achieves this feat far better than most. Its story isn’t unusual because it’s unlikely or far-fetched, it’s rare because it’s so little seen. Stories focusing on teens and adolescents may be everywhere in film, they’re not nearly as well represented on the stage. Athena fills that void beautifully with a tale about two seventeen-year-old girls who meet through competition and end up taking us to worlds many of us would likely never have otherwise touched.
One of them is the world of fencing, that ancient sport now most often associated with the rich and the Olympics. Fiercely sparring on the strip, fencing’s playing area; our introduction to Athena (Mary Tilden) and Mary Wallace (Aja Singletary) catches them in the throes of intense combat. You’re struck by how convincing the fencing choreography is presented and how quickly its authenticity locks you into the moment. They’re both very good, but one stands out just a little more. Strangers who happen to train at the same club, when they take off their masks, the life of the play unfolds with true radiance.
Soon it’s clear the two are not only well matched athletically, their personalities share uncanny alignments. They’re both bold, forthright. One, Athena, is a New York City girl who wears her confidence like a crown. Athena isn’t even her real name. She’s taken on the moniker of the Greek goddess of war to define how she sees herself. It’s the only name we’ll ever know her by. She knows how skilled she is and wants her fencing abilities to pay off with, we presume, a scholarship. Mary Wallace is no less ambitious and only a microliter less sure of herself. A child of the suburbs, she endures a long and onerous commute to practice at the facility they share. She’s also much more self-contained. Proud of her dedication to her sport, proud of the kind student she is and proud that she’s earned considerable trust from her parents; she sees herself as someone capable of competently thinking and acting in one’s own self-interest. She sees herself as an adult. On the strip, Athena and Mary Wallace impress and interest one another. Portraying herself as a lone wolf who doesn’t need anybody, Athena surprises Mary Wallace and the audience when she broaches the idea that they regularly practice together. She sells it as something that will mutually benefit each of them. According to Athena, the proposal is not about friendship, it’s about the pursuit of excellence.
That it slides into something more isn’t shocking. It’s the how that fascinates and keeps you leaning in so that you don’t miss a syllable of their exchanges. Quickness of mind makes words zing like rocket fire. Points, opinions, expressions of feelings all land with unqualified surety. Stunning for its reach, playwright Gracie Gardner dialogue goes everywhere, uncovering reams of insight and detail about these two rivals who can’t blunt the trajectory their friendship. It’s all delivered in a language that sounds like a new music form, the language of the young. Teenagers have long mastered the deft ability to reshape their mother tongue and turn it into a dialect of their own; often filling it with fresh color and meaning. Athena outshines her sparring partner from the suburbs on this score; mainly because Mary Wallace seems to also take pride in the steadfastness of her orthodoxy. That doesn’t stop her from adroitly defending herself or issuing stiff challenges of her own.
For all their intelligence and ambition, each wants what every teenager wants. Validation, meaningful acknowledgment, success. As committed competitors, they take the stakes they’re applying so much effort toward very seriously. It could be that they weren’t able to foresee that the work, dedication and mental conviction they invested to reach the top would lead them to a match they both would dread. How they respond is a testament to the kind of courage and will that doesn’t know age or sex.
Both Tilden and Singletary were magnetic in their roles and delightful to watch every minute of the performance. Arnel Sancianco’s minimalist set, bisecting the Gillian theater space down the center, made a sensational focal point that helped center our attention on the two women. With such engaging acting, a heady sampling of Jessica Fisch’s potent directing and a top-notch storyline; the added help of a wonderfully conceived set seemed gratuitous. Every theatrical production should be so fortunate.
Athena
May 5 – July 10, 2022
Writers Theatre
325 Tudor Court
Glencoe, IL
