eternal hydra

Lest you think mythology is some vague laborious thing you vaguely recall from grade 9, involving monsters and snakeheads an gods hurling thunderbolts from the sky... well, me too.

How many times did I go through the Greek and Roman pantheons, trying to keep the names, functions, and connections straight?

But the success of the recent film Beowulf proves that myths are eternally popular.

The tales of gods and goddesses, heroes, demons, maidens and monsters still have a power, and I've found, increase in meaning as the years pass.

As noted mythologian Joseph Campbell once wrote, "myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life."

Anton Piatigorsky understands this.

Soulpepper Theatre Company's current playwright-in-residence has chosen to name his play, Eternal Hydra, after the Greek mythological figure of the fearsome creature Hercules had to kill as part of his twelve tasks; for every head poor Herc chopped off, two grew back.

The play is being presented by Crow's Theatre November 26th to December 1st at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

"The story is about a novel that's been lost and then rediscovered," he explains, "and the novel is called Eternal Hydra. There's a myth in it paralleling the myth of Hercules killing the Hydra, but it's meant as a loose analogy for all of humanity."

Piatigorsky's fictional author, Carbunkle, uses the Hydra myth for his own purposes, but as a wider metaphor, he sees the work as "very much about appropriation. The act of Hercules cutting off and capturing the head is an analogy for what the writer does in the course of writing it. It becomes about the appropriation of voice and stealing stories."

Originally premiered at the Stratford Festival's Studio theatre, the play has since evolved into a two-act piece.

"It was initially commissioned as a one-act, and I wrote a version I was happy with, but in that process, I saw ways of expanding it into a full length show. Some of the things I wanted to say and explore couldn't be done in a one-act. It's taken a bunch of years, but now there is a real story that was missing in the Stratford production. It works much better as a narrative now."

Taking his cue from historical novels as well as his own upbringing in Washington, D.C., Piatigorsky says Eternal Hydra is "explicitely about issues of race."

"While I was growing up, everything was about race, in a way that here, there has always been a charged vibe of French and English tensions. In the States, everything's about race... there's that problem, that history, and it carries over into everything."

His work is also meta-dramatical in the sense of bringing awareness to an audience who themselves bring a variance of realities into the theatre.

"I think a lot of people in my generation really like those meta-theatrical stories... there's something true about the experience," he explains, "You can't live in a city like Toronto without being aware there are so many different kinds of people having such radically different experiences, and you can't talk about your experiences or what Toronto is in a meaningful way. The only way that you can really explore those things is by referencing other people's stories and layering them."

For all the rampant decapitation -physical and literal -contained in Eternal Hydra, Piatigorsky's biggest battle thus far has been bringing a sense of emotionality to the work.

"As a writer, that's been my biggest battle," he says with a knowing smile, "I came to it from not from ideas, because I always felt very emotional and hearty about it. But a lot of times what I imagined is the heart of the play makes sense in my head, but doesn't translate, so figuring out how to walk that line has been a long process for me."

So what will audiences take away from Eternal Hydra? Perhaps a burning urge to dig out their old Edith Hamilton volumes? Or rent Clash of the Titans?

"I hope it hinges on feeling several things at once... breaking open any sense of morality, of right and wrong."

He pauses.

"Ultimately, it's a very clear, very specific and very simple explanation of complexity. That's what it's about."

Sounds like a myth to me.

Eternal Hydra runs at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre November 26th to December 1st; for more information, go to www.crowstheatre.com.