Prisoners rarely get to see the same performances as their friends or family on the outside. But the Fig Tree Committee — a Portland, Ore., theater company touring in Vermont this month — is looking to change that. By staging the same play in and outside correctional facilities, the troupe aims to create a shared experience across prison walls.
The company began performing An Iliad — a modern theatrical adaptation of Homer’s epic Greek poem The Iliad — in prisons and public venues across Oregon in 2018. Actor Paul Susi portrays the Poet, narrating the story of the Trojan War, while Anna Fritz plays an original score on cello as the Muses, the goddesses of literature, science and the arts.
Now making its out-of-state debut, the Fig Tree Committee has booked fall dates across Vermont, Wisconsin and Maine. On Monday, Susi and Fritz performed An Iliad to an audience of 24 at Southern State Correctional Facility, a men’s prison in Springfield. The duo will appear at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in South Burlington, on Thursday, October 10. A public show will follow at the O.N.E. Community Center in Burlington on Friday, October 11.
The idea to perform in both public venues and prisons emerged from conversations with prisoners, Fritz said.
“We would have [incarcerated] folks come up to us saying, ‘Are you guys gonna be in Portland? Are you gonna be in different towns? Because my brother would love this’ or ‘My mom would love this,'” Fritz said. “The conversations that happened between people on opposite sides of the walls who had this same experience together — there’s not really anything like that.”
Local organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, Vermont Humanities, Burlington Friends Meeting and FreeHer Vermont Campaign, helped the theater company navigate the bureaucratic hurdles to gain access to the prisons. The unique setting requires a bare-bones production: Susi is the lone actor onstage, while Fritz sits in a chair and plays cello. There are no costume changes, special effects or high-tech stage lights.
The performers initially chose An Iliad for pragmatic reasons. “It was a path of least resistance: It’s Homer. It’s ancient Greek culture,” Susi said. “So it’s a little bit easier for authority figures to give that a pass. We’re trying to give people as few reasons as possible to say no to us.”
Susi said he was also drawn to the show because of its themes of coming to terms with anger and the desire for vengeance. The narrative centers on the clash between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the Trojan War, offering commentary on both the glorification and the destructive consequences of violent conflict.
After each 90-minute show, audiences discuss how the story resonated with them. The play often strikes a chord with prisoners, many of whom have personal experiences with violence or trauma, Susi said. He noted that the program offers a rare opportunity for prisoners to be emotionally unguarded.
“I hesitate to use the phrase, but it’s a kind of safe space for vulnerability,” he said. “There are still guards in the room, and it’s still behind walls, but we are able to hold a space where that can happen.”
The show can also be a brief respite from the daily drudgery of prison life.
“It’s definitely something we’ve heard over and over,” Fritz said: “‘With you guys, we were free for two hours.'”
Updated October 9, 2024: This story was edited to include the FreeHer Vermont Campaign, another local organization sponsoring the event.
An Iliad, Friday, October 11, 7 p.m., at the O.N.E. Community Center in Burlington. Pay what you can. figtreecommittee.org
The original print version of this article was headlined “The Fig Tree Committee Brings a Greek Epic to Vermont Prisons”
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This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2024.
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