An Iliad
Written by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare
Directed by Conor Bagley
Assistant Director: Abbey Burgess
Starring Iason Togias
and Matt Chilton
Production Design by Daniel Prosky
Performed at Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C., June, 2018
Iason Togias’ performance as the Poet was named one of DC Metro Theatre Arts’ Outstanding Performances of 2018.
“Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles.”
An Iliad is a modern retelling of Homer’s classic about the horrors and glories of the Trojan War. While epic in scope, it tells the deeply personal story of Achilles and Hector; of families, lovers, and inseparable friends; and the tragic, yet enthralling, nature of war. But most of all, it is about rage: the way it warps us, the lengths we go to satiate it, and our struggle to control it.
“When Togias’ poet is joined on stage by Chilton’s muse, the power of this ancient tale is brought into the present. Togias is an actor of immense skill and gravitas, but in keeping with Bagley’s conceit to emphasize the relationship between Poet and Muse, Chilton is no mere accompanist. Now bowing his instrument, he evokes different moods with long aggressive strokes to anxious spiccato, to haunting harmonic melodies. The two are feeding off one another, adjusting to each other’s rhythms and tones…. Like any good mime or figurative sculptor, [Togias] understands that so much drama is expressed in the bending of legs, and the torsion and tilt of each discrete part of the body. His ability to work with different muscle tensions, combining stillnesses with both swift and slow movements creates an onstage dynamism that is mesmerizing.”
—Ian Thal, DC Metro Theatre Arts
★★★★
“Togias is up to the task to people the stage, stepping into the shoes of the key figures in the epic story. To personify Achilles, the genius, the greatest warrior who ever lived, Togias seems to change size, puff up larger than life…. Just with his voice and body on a bare stage, Togias gives us something more powerful than any action film. Inspiring our own imagination, he brings all in the audience into the collaboration just as Homer did with his audience. We see the blood, we conjure the cleaving of bone and muscle and flesh. We weep at the carnage we have wrought.”
—Susan Galbraith, DC Theatre Scene