(l-r) Jailyn Genyse as Mary Wallace and Isa Venere as Athena in “Athena” Photo by Jon Gitchoff. Courtesy of the Repertory Theater of St. Louis
– By Cate Marquis –
In “Athena,” two 17-year-old girls meet to practice fencing together with hopes to compete in the Junior Olympics, in Gracie Gardner’s electrifying, action-filled drama about ambition, competition and friendship. This thrilling production, featuring plenty of live fencing, is the second production in the Repertory Theater of St. Louis’ 2024-2025 Emerson Studio Theatre Series. “Athena” is also the last Studio production of the season, although there are more Mainstage productions still to come.
Fencing is a remarkably fast and agressive sport, based on a form of one-on-one combat and using blunted weapons. It requiring fencers to be bold, fearless and decisive in close-up mock combat, making it something especially exciting to watch. Perhaps more than any other individual sport, it requires both speed and a kind of blood-thirstiness, using a weapon in close-in battles. Hesitation imeans failure, and balance, speed, and a sharp eye for an oponent’s weaknesses or missteps are also needed.
Even without knowing anything about the sport, fencing matches are thirlling to watch. And there is plenty of that action in playwright Gracie Gardner’s insightful yet action-packed drama “Athena,” sprinkled throughout the play between dramatic scenes involving these two girls.
Nancy Bell directs this winning production. Regulars at the Rep may have caught Nancy on stage as an actor, in the wonderful comedy “The Roomate” early this season. With “Athena,” Bell is spot-on in handling both the dramatic scenes between the teenagers and the fencing action segments.
Two 17-year-old girls meet for the first time at a New York gym, where they are both looking for fencing opponents for a practice matches. Both girls have ambitions to go to the Junior Olympics and need to hone their skills to their sharpest to make the cut. After the two spar, the winner of the match suggests that they start practicing together, commenting they are well-match in skills – despite the fact that, disconcertingly, her opponent burst into tears when she lost. The crying girl, Mary Wallace (Jailyn Genyse), who admits that she frequently does that when she loses, although her less-emotional sparing opponent gently suggests it might be a bit unsportsman-like to cry when you lose. Mary Wallace hesitates to accept, saying that she doesn’t live in the city and would need to travel there from her suburban home, but she eventually agrees. Asking for the other girl’s name, her new practice partner tells her it’s Athena (Isa Venere). It isn’t her real name, but her “fencing” name, she says, and refuses to give any other (although we learn it later).
Athena and Mary Wallace maybe well-match as fencers but they couldn’t be more different in both personality and background. Sensitive, emotional Mary Wallace is a perfectionist who is very hard on herself and lacks confidence. She lives in the suburbs, in a comfortable home with parents who dote on her. Self-assured, a bit over-confident Athena lives in New York City, in an apartment with her single-parent father, who is not doing so well in life, financially and otherwise, and sometimes neglects his daughter. Fencing is a kind of escape for Athena, as well as part of her dreams.
The characters go back and forth, both emotionally and in fencing matches, keeping us guessing as the girls teeter between friendship and wariness. As the two girls meet to spar, details about their family come out as we get to know them. Athena often give pointers to her sparing partner and seems more willing to be friends, while it feels like the less-confident Mary Wallace is the one most in need of a friend.
The acting is strong from both Jailyn Genyse and Isa Venere, who do well in the fencing portion as well as the dramatic scenes. While the play centers on Athena and Mary Wallace, there is a third cast member, Carmen Cecilia Retzer, who plays Jamie, a feared opponent that the practice partners will face at the next level of competition.
The matches are frequent in this show, quick interludes that are just the right length. There is something magical, and a bit nervous-making, about watching stage combat, where carefully choreographed moves produce the illusion of battle but worries that something might go wrong are inescapable. Watching fencing matches, with their lightning swift moves, and boldly aggressive attacks, is thrilling anyway, and seeing several of them as stage combat is a treat, although the blunted weapons and protective gear of masks and padded vests reassure us by reducing the risk.
The fencing action takes place on a long, runway-like stage, where the two performers engage in those electrifying fencing matches. As always, the Rep shines in the consistant creativity of the sets in particular, which here look both visually strking and perfectly suited to the needs of the action, with kudos to scenic designer Seth Howard for this perfect set.
One feels that they both would like to be friends but the gulf between them is wide. Also, although they practice together for both their benefits, the fierce competitive nature of their sport makes them wary of each other. In this combat-inspired sport, awareness of an opponents weaknesses is an important tool, so revealing too much can put you at a disadvantage. As the play unfolds, both characters develop as fencers but whether they will end up as friends is less certain.
The Repertory Theater of St. Louis’ “Anthena” is on stage in the Emerson Studio space at the Loretto Hilton Theater in Webster Groves through Feb. 9.
© Cate Marquis
