Norma Jeane Baker of Troy is a "spoken and sung performance piece" written by the Canadian author and classicistAnne Carson, which debuted in New York City in 2019. The non-linear plot is loosely based upon the playHelen, written byEuripides in 412 BCE and superimposesMarilyn Monroe over the legendary figure ofHelen of Troy.[1]
On New Year's Eve, 1963, an unnamed screenwriter works with his female stenographer in an empty New York office in order to finish his ambitious screenwriting project (the text he is writing is the same asNorma Jeane Baker of Troy, which was published byOberon Books) based on Euripides'Helen. This version differs from the more popular story of Helen of Troy as Euripides' states that Helen never sailed to Troy with Paris, but was instead transported to Egypt by the gods while Paris brought a phantom Helen with him to Troy. In the play, the phantom is described as a cloud, and the cloud motif continues throughout. The screenwriter interrupts his own dictation frequently, distracted by the recent death of a similarly tragic and gorgeous woman, Marilyn Monroe. He begins to share biographical facts about Monroe and offers his own reflections about her life, and, while doing so, begins to change out of his work clothing and into a Marilyn Monroe costume that resembles her white dress inThe Seven Year Itch. The screenwriter presents Monroe as a parallel to Euripides' Helen, bringing in other parallel characters from Monroe's own life, likeTruman Capote,Fritz Lang,Pearl Bailey, and "Arthur, King of Sparta and New York," an amalgamation of Helen's husbandMenelaus and Monroe's third husbandArthur Miller.
The play was commissioned for the inaugural theatrical season ofThe Shed (Hudson Yards) and was announced in 2018.[2] The play was directed byKatie Mitchell and the music was composed by Paul Clark. Carson wrote the play with the actorBen Whishaw in mind, having previously worked with him in a production of her translation ofThe Bakkhai in 2015.[3]Whishaw stars opposite the opera singerRenée Fleming, who plays the stenographer. Clark created all of the background music using pre-recorded selections of Fleming singing, which he manipulated in the studio.[4]
Reviews of the play have been mixed.The New York Times praised Carson's writing and the performances of both Whishaw and Fleming, calling them "marvelous."[3]The Telegraph instead criticized the excessive coldness and lack of humanity in the play and its characters, writing that the work was intelligent but difficult to appreciate.[5]The Daily Beast praised the score and the performances of both Whishaw and Fleming, but found the play itself to be incomprehensible.[6]
It was the winner of theGovernor General's Award for English-language poetry at the2020 Governor General's Awards.[7]