Dear Britt,
I must confess that my knowledge of Greek mythology has withered since graduating high school, and that leading up to Arachne’s opening night, I mispronounced the title as “Are-uh-cane”. However, this did not hinder the instantaneous pull of your performance. Starting off the show with a thick southern accent filled to the brim with charm, you gently led
us, a timid audience, to bleat and be your loyal sheep for the evening. I was curious where this reimagining would go, but your confidence made me sure that we would end up exactly where we needed to be.
What struck me the most was your incredibly strong ability to be present, not just within your larger-than-life characters and stories, but also within the temporal space of the moment- which is really what makes live performance so electrifying. The thunderbolt phallus was just the cherry on top! It was also the pit in my stomach that lingered for the rest of the night.
You skillfully weaved through classic tropes with engaging uses of physical comedy, familiar pop songs, intense female rage, mesmerizing uses of props, and a soundtrack of too familiar failures. You did this all without skipping a beat or making me feel like one moment suffered for another. The show’s central theme of honesty was evident in every aspect of your performance.
Once I felt I had more of a sense of where this tale was going, you sunk a dagger into me. I wasn’t expecting what had felt like a fun gimmick to transform into something that made me hold back tears. Even writing this, I can viscerally recall the harrowing feeling that ran through my body as the unexpected burlesque scene took its turn. Was I not just shouting, howling, and laughing? The identities of spectator, victim, and perpetrator swirled together- as they often do. But instead of turning away, here you were, holding them all at once in your own body. We were forced to watch. We were forced to reflect. The laughter that escaped from Athena left me with the bitter taste of catharsis, and the feeling of my own entrails on the floor.
I want to thank you both for the delicate ways you held these truths of womanhood, and for the
more jagged ways you uncovered what we often try to bury. Your dynamic performance that asks what it means to be a friend, what it means to be justified, and what it really means to be honest, will live on in me.
Thank you,
Xora Odelle
Xora Odelle’s Traps runs Sept 24-28th at the Asian Arts Initiative.
Britt Anderson’s Arachne has completed it’s Philadelphia Fringe run- catch her work in Chicago or on the next tour!
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