In a truly remarkable play that queers history and brings biblical tales into a contemporary narrative, Jordan Tannahill’s Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom takes on a huge amount of history and flawlessly pull together a cohesive, heart wrenching, and startlingly human narrative. The colloquial dialogue within these two entangled pieces makes them accessible to a modern audience, and says so much about society, prejudice, and love without ever saying anything at all.

Sunday in Sodom, a re-imagining of the biblical fall of Sodom, as told through Lot’s previously unnamed wife — now Edith — is a dynamic story of a mother’s attempt to keep tradition and family together. In a stage direction at the start of the piece, Tannahill writes that Edith should be stationary the entire show. The piece follows like a haunted extended monologue, as the world moves around her, but she is stuck. Edith, in the Bible, looks back upon the fall of Sodom and turns into a pillar of salt, and her lack of movement builds tension, as her husband, Lot, accepts two American soldiers into their household. The longer Edith stays still, the more unhinged the world around her becomes. Her world is one Western audiences see far too often on the news — drone strikes, war torn communities, the lengths mothers will go to in order to save and protect their children. Tannahill’s Edith rips your heart out, just when audiences think they cannot handle anymore, as she explains why, even after being told not to look back, she does.

Played in repertoire with Sunday in Sodom is Botticelli in the Fire. Just as with Sunday, Tannahill’s version of the Italian renaissance is a mirror to contemporary society. In Botticelli’s world, he is unafraid of directly addressing the audience, making his identity as a queer man known, and changing history when it comes in the way of love. Tannahill’s act of queering history, most notably through his use of queer colloquialism within the dialogue, brings Rome in the 1490s to a place much closer to 2018. What truly struck me, though, was the intricate way that the conversation around homosexuals and the plague was conducted. Even though it’s never said, the lack of governmental control, the blame placed on queer men, and the discussion of illness as an inevitability makes 15th century Rome look a lot like the Reagan administration in the 1980s. The impressive power Botticelli in the Fire is based in the literary sleight of hand Tannahill manages to pull off. What could potentially be disorienting is instead smooth and natural — as if, of course 21st century queer slang fits in during the 15th century. Of course the Black Plague is a parallel for the AIDS crisis. Why wouldn’t it?

Tannahill received the Governor General’s Award for Drama, and it is mighty well deserved. His dialogue is witty, his characters sexy and complicated in all the best and worst ways. But at the core, there is a beating heart that drives everything forward – giving meaning to those moments in our history and mythology that had never had true meaning before. The ways in which Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom rewrite history, complicating, queering, and questioning it, allow audiences to see how far our society has come — and how far we’ve still got to go.

 

Available now from Playwrights Canada Press
https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/B/Botticelli-in-the-Fire-Sunday-in-Sodom