Review: Playwright Will Power Revives the Story of an Overlooked Hero in Memnon

Anyone with a passing knowledge of Greek mythology has heard of the wrath of Achilles and the wanderings of Odysseus. Both of those heroes earned their own Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, but there are a lot of other heroes who had significant roles in the Trojan War that get only brief mentions in Homer. One of them is the Ethiopian king Memnon (not to be confused with Agamemnon, the Mycenaean king immortalized by the playwright Aeschylus). Memnon fought fiercely for the city of Troy and met his end at the hand of Achilles, yet you’ve probably never heard of him.

Playwright Will Power wanted to fix that, and he has in his new play Memnon, making its East Coast premiere at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park. No wonder so few know about him. Even while I was a classics minor in college, I never read Quintus of Smyrna’s Posthomerica, the epic poem that picks up where the Iliad leaves off and contains most of the lore surrounding Memnon. Power uses Quintus of Smyrna’s story as the basis of his elegant 70-minute dramatization of Memnon’s struggles with familial, civic, and divine allegiances. In the process, he makes a strong case for taking a closer look at this noble, often-neglected figure of the Trojan War legend.

The play begins a few days after Achilles (a buff and boastful Jesse Corbin) has killed Troy’s greatest defender, Hector, to avenge the death of his close friend (and probably lover) Patroclus. Troy is in trouble without Hector to defend it, and King Priam (Jesse J. Perez) needs help. So he calls upon his nephew, Memnon (Eric Berryman), and his legions of soldiers who arrive and rout the Greeks temporarily. But Memnon, a leader more inclined to peace and reason than the warlords around him, makes an enemy of the aged Nestor (Perez) when he kills Nester’s son Antilochus (David Darrow). Avenging yet another death, Achilles fights Memnon, who submits himself to the will of the gods with the promise that he will rise again.

Power and director Carl Cofield (who worked together previously on Power’s eerily prophetic Seize the King) excavate the details surrounding one of the ancient world’s few myths about heroes of African origin in a play that combines elevated poetry, dance, and a hefty dose of flashy stagecraft. Power writes in a strictly poetic, almost Shakespearean vein. In many ways, it feels a bit like a version of a work by Aeschylus or Sophocles, with lofty speeches and enough arcane mythological references to make your eyes glaze over. Sometimes the style can make for heavy listening. An expository monologue delivered by Darrow had me thinking about my grocery list for a minute, and it seemed to inspire a few audience members to head for the exit within the first 15 minutes.

Too bad for them, because if they had stuck it out they would have seen some great performances, especially by Berryman, who plays the noble King Memnon with grace and dignity, elongating his vowels into rich syllables that make you want to listen. Andrea Patterson (wearing a gorgeous red and Ankara-patterned gown by Celeste Jennings and regal hair by Samantha Weiner) commands the stage as a defiant Helen who denies playing a role in the war; it was men who launched those thousand ships, not her. And Darrow had me laughing as the spoiled nepo baby Antilochus, who has no business fighting in a war much less going up against the likes of Memnon. We’re not sorry to see him go.

The rest of the production is a feast for the eyes. Riw Rakkulchon’s set of Troy’s crumbling ruins dramatically flashes red when Antilochus meets his end (lighting by Alan C. Edwards) and swarms with armies as the Ethiopian troops descend on the Greeks (video design by Yee Eun Nam and Hannah Tran). Frederick Kennedy heightens these effects with thunderous sound design and music as the lithe ensemble of dancers enters like a chorus and drives the pulsating action (choreography Tiffany Rea-Fisher). Fight director Emmanuel Brown choreographs the exciting battle between Memnon and Achilles, adding a Matrix-inspired moment that had the audience roaring.

As I left the theater, I couldn’t help thinking that Power has done something important by creating a work that adds to our understanding of classical literature and also comments on our times. Memnon, a man who preferred to talk through rather than fight through conflicts, has much more to teach us than a vengeful Achilles.