In this series of posts, we’ll be bringing you glimpses into the devising process for The Trojan Women Project. The thirteen performers involved often wrote poems, songs, dialogues, and movement pieces on the theme and ideas being explored in the rehearsal room. Sometimes they were created in the spur of the moment and other times director Rachel Hynes gave them prompts to go away and work on and then return with material. This piece was written by Ruthie Rado who played Willow after Rachel asked the ensemble to each write a piece about their hopes for the future.
Ruthie’s Hopes for the Future
by Ruthie Rado
Have you heard about the troop
of baboons
Where the aggressive alpha males
accidentally ate poisonous garbage
and died?
The female baboons were in charge.
And the fighting stopped.
The biting stopped.
The aggrandizing, cruel, hostile violence
Stopped.
How did the female baboons occupy their time,
if not with pulling and pinching and petulance?
They groomed each other.
They sat and they groomed each other.
They touched and they calmed each other.
The matriarchal monkeys created a primate peace.
They taught their sons to groom each other.
And a generation of male baboons never new violence.
And when a hostile visitor from another troop would
come to stir up trouble,
He quickly learned the law of the land was love,
and changed his ways.
And so, the female baboons created
A culture in their own image.
I imagine
that one brutal day,
the men of the world will wake up hungry
and choke on their own toxic aggression.
Eat their own poisonous garbage.
And when the smoke clears,
when the conflict settles like dust,
there will be a troop of women waiting.
Loving
and laughing.
Ready to remake the world in our image.