Norma Jeane Baker de Troie

Marilyn Monroe – born Norma Jeane Baker – and Helen of Troy share the same fate: that of women transformed into icons, adored and then sacrificed by worlds shaped by male power. War and cinema celebrate them just as much as they consume them.

In the version by Euripides that inspired Anne Carson, Helen never went to Troy. Paris abducted only a ghost, a cloud in her image. Men therefore kill one another for an illusion. Building on this dizzying premise, Anne Carson composes a tragic poem in which Sparta, New York and Hollywood, ancient tragedy and contemporary culture, Helen and Marilyn are superimposed. 
The characters shift and are reimagined: Norma Jeane takes on the traits of Truman Capote; Arthur becomes king of Sparta and New York; whilst the play itself oscillates between myth, memory and fiction. Moving between lyrical fragments and definitions from the lexicon of warfare, the play uses sharp irony to question the narratives of power, domination and representation that run through Western history.