‘An Iliad’ for Our Time

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Milwaukee Chamber Theatre - An Iliad

N'Jameh Camara appears as a mysterious figure walking onstage carefully scanning the audience. Once she’s taken a look at everything, her stage presence settles into the moment, and she begins to tell her story. An Iliad is a story of warfare drawn from antiquity, but it echoes tragically into the present and beyond. Camara marches thoughtfully through a story that reaches right into the jaws of human aggression. She’s the only one speaking for the entire story, but she’s not the only one on stage. In time, her narration is accompanied by cleverly crafted music by Kellen “Klassik” Abston.

Director Brent Hazelton keeps it all quite intimate. The space at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center locks-in the breathtakingly human tolls and intensities of warfare. In the interest amplifying the immediacy, Camara is surrounded by the audience. This might not be the best situation for a soldier on the battlefield, but it’s a deeply engaging way to approach the tactical theatrical objectives involved in one person telling one story that embraces the deeper complexities of conflict which tragically stretch back to the dawn of history and beyond. 

It isn’t an easy thing for a single performer to draw-in an audience’s attention and hold it for 90 minutes without intermission ... even with the benefit of stylish musical accompaniment from someone as talented as Abston. Camara deftly slices through the tale of strife and passion, performing at the deeper end of emotion throughout the narrative. She brilliantly taps into real frustration and anger, particularly as the story casts its gaze on the countless soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty in the winding march of history. 

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of An Iliad runs through Oct. 6 at Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W Walnut St. For ticket reservations and more, visit milwaukeechambertheatre.org/an-iliad.