TROJAN KIDS

By: Gillian Clark (Playwriting, 2020)
Director: Allison Moira Kelly (Directing, 2024)

A community named New Troy rests on the Bay of Styx, which has the highest tides in the world.   
Tonight is the 10th anniversary of the death of Artemis: beloved mother, sister and friend. 
Away from the adults, the kids gather in the school’s field around a fire to burn stuff in honour of Artemis. 
Or at least that’s why they say they gather. 
The deceased isn’t the star of this show anymore. 
Odysseus is planning an epic prom-posal.   
Cassandra has a vision. 
Thalthybius has hope. 
When does playing pretend start to feel too real? 
Welcome to New Troy.  Unpack your bags. Stay awhile. 

A note on the play: 
Trojan Kids is one half of the play Trojan Kids and the Outhouse of Atreus.  Think of Trojan Kids as one half of a circle, and The Outhouse of Atreus as the other half. We encourage you to see both shows to complete the full experience. You can see the shows in either order.   
Here is a link to get your tickets for The Outhouse of Atreus! 

I am fascinated by children, and I loved being one. I wasn’t one of those kids who wanted to grow up. In fact, at the age of 6 I said, “I know it cannot get better than this.” And, okay, there’s no way I can prove this, but I’m pretty sure I’m an adult who fully remembers how it felt to be a child. I loved working on this play because it offered me the opportunity to spend time in the world with these wonderful kids. They are all living at 100%, and we can learn from them. They are filled to the brim with love and confidence and desire and shame and questions and insecurity and terror and hope. I want to thank every person on the team and congratulate them on graduating. You’re all spectacular.  
“Childhood is the world of miracle or of magic: it is as if creation rose luminously out of the night, all new and fresh and astonishing. Childhood is over the moment things are no longer astonishing.” - Eugene Ionesco  OR "I'm just a kid and life is a nightmare" - Simple Plan (2002) 

Allison Moira Kelly

It is a rare gift as a playwright to reimagine a play not one, not two, but three times.  

The origins of this piece started in 2017 at Two Planks and a Passion Theatre.  Artistic director, Ken Schwartz asked if I wanted to adapt The Trojan Women to be played outside, around a fire. At the time of the commission, I was fortunate to be a student at NTS, where Nick Carpenter and Kalale Dalton-Lutale were instrumental in the early stages of development. The play premiered as The Ruins in 2019 and was about a group of kids in late summer. 

Mitchell Cushman asked if I had any curiosity developing the piece to explore what the adults were doing on this night alongside the kids.  Thus began the creation of Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus, which was coproduced by Factory Theatre and Outside the March in association with Neworld Theatre in 2022.  This process forged cherished relationships, including the piece’s current dramaturg, Ho Ka Kei.  

The final leg of this process for what is now called Trojan Kids and the Outhouse of Atreus began when Andrea Romaldi asked if I was interested in creating for the 2024 New Words Festival.  My original intention was to make a few small changes to the drafts I had already written… that did not happen.  The artists at the school inspired me to completely reinvent these sibling plays. Their courage, dedication and joy were infectious. I admire them for their bravery, generosity and most importantly, truth telling. My gratitude to all faculty, administrators, staff, coaches, and of course, the students for their collaboration on this piece.  

You, dear audience member, are part of this creation journey too. Thank you for being here. Whether you are around the fire in Trojan Kids or at the Duck n Swing in The Outhouse of Atreus…Welcome to New Troy. 

Gillian Clark