Launching Ships by Kirsten Brandt and Janet Hayatshahi

Created by Kirsten Brandt and Janet Hayatshahi

Blending projected media, recorded media, and live performance, we have created a non-linear piece examining beauty and objectification of the female form, particularly within the #metoo movement. Launching Ships is a modern riff on the Helen of Troy myth, viewing the perspective of the aging woman once deemed as the most beautiful in the world. In this solo performance, Helen has just returned from the Trojan War. The audience becomes her confidant as she prepares for a formal gathering in her “honor.”  She has no idea what to expect at this soiree: love, hostility, or indifference.  Her estranged husband, Menelaus, watches her prepare for the event through a live feed camera, which is projected for the audience to see. Helen’s projected image becomes the embodiment of the male gaze, at times zooming in on specific parts of her body for gratification. But, unseen by Menelaus, is a second screen. Here, we project Helen’s inner truth and memories, some of which Helen doesn’t want to face. Helen engages the audience in conversations about sex, rape, and parenthood, at times turning a microphone on them for answers to the unanswerable.

Launching Ships examines how society dictates what a woman can do with her body, and quite literally turns a lens towards ways that she should look in order to suppress and control her. Through “Launching Ships” we explore the mediated form, how it can engage with performance, and how a live feed camera can fragment and deconstruct the body, allowing for a variety of perspectives through which an audience can have a multiplicity of experiences. 

 Launching Ships has been performed at the Firehouse Theatre in Richmond, Virginia; Center Stage Theatre in Santa Cruz, California; the StateraArts Conference in New York; and the Politics of Gender and Justice: the Intersection of Identity and Disciple Conference, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.