Image courtesy Kyle Hannecken
Hellenika The Musical - Loogo
Hellenika The Musical logo
There might be no better introduction to the life of the mind, and no better method for sorting truth from falsehood, than the words left behind by Socrates. The ancient Greek philosopher is available in books, sometimes in stodgy translations that blunt the sharpness of his observations. Milwaukee composer Kyle Hanneken has the idea of introducing Socrates to a new audience by turning his life and ideas into a musical.
Hanneken’s musical, Hellenika, will debut this month in a concert reading at the Marcus PAC’s Vogel Hall. The musical lands at a point where fake news, mendacious propaganda and AI-generated slop fills inboxes 24/7. The only way to escape the lies is to expose them for what they are. Socrates gave us the tools for truth seeking.
“I’ve always been enthralled by the power of historically accurate fiction as a method of storytelling,” Hanneken says. The onetime UWM music composition major was so taken after discovering Socrates that writing Hellenika “was something I knew I had to do. It’s time for our society to ask pointed questions and define our terms.” That’s what Socrates stood for.
Milwaukeeans might recognize Hanneken from his regular performances with ComedySportz, and some might remember him as the drummer in the post-rock, math-rock trio The Gardener. Hellenika was a project that grew organically over the past seven years.
Colorful and Diverse
“I describe the score as colorful and diverse, just as diverse as ancient Athens,” Socrates’ hometown, Hanneken says. The fabled birthplace of democracy “was an extremely tolerant place with a great diversity of religion, tolerant of non-citizens and foreigners. The music bridges traditional and modern musical theater. It combines rock with a little bit of pop. It’s influenced by hip-hop, but not by way of style. What permeates the score is a poetic text set to finite, metered space.”
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Photo via Kyle Hanneken
Nathaniel Hackmann
Nathaniel Hackmann
To play Socrates, Hanneken recruited Broadway’s Nathaniel Hackmann via Instagram before flying to New York to meet the actor. The co-protagonist is a figure less emphasized in the history books but evidently of crucial importance, Socrates’ mentor, a brilliant woman from Asia Minor called Aspasia (Teagan Earley from “Chicago Fire”). She was the lover of the Athenian statesman Pericles (Andrew Varela from “Chicago Fire”) and, according to Plato, tutored Socrates in rhetoric—a word misused nowadays whose original meaning was persuasive, well-grounded communication.
“You can only imagine how profound she was,” Hanneken says. Perhaps her example influenced Socrates’ greatest pupil, Plato, present in Hellenika as a narrator, providing context in between songs. (Ekene Ikegwuani plays Plato.) “Aspasia had many enemies—people opposed to women speaking out,” he continues. “Plato put forth the theory that women can be leaders—they can rule.”
Arguments in Song
With Socratic arguments set to song, in Hellenika, the great philosopher debates with the sophists, the clever but shallow pundits who’ll remind audiences of today’s podcasters, influencers and self-help gurus.
Socrates lived in a time of war, tyranny and division. “The city of Athens is a character, and without understanding what the city went through, you can’t understand how Socrates was used as a scapegoat for the trials the people were enduring,” Hanneken says. Historical interpretation is always speculative, but Hanneken earned his opinions, immersing himself in the ancient texts as well as recent scholarship on Socrates and Plato.
Spoiler alert: Socrates calmly accepts his death sentence after a jury trial, convicted of “corrupting” the city’s youth with his ideas, his questioning attitudes. “The entire musical is headed toward the trial of Socrates, all the dramatic action is pointed toward it,” Hanneken continues.
Hellinika has a cast of 20, but its Vogel Hall debut will not be a full production. There will be no costumes, and the performers will be accompanied by recorded music. “The core concepts are what is justice? How do we define truth? How do we pursue it?” Hanneken says. Those are no different from the questions we must ask ourselves today.
Hellenika will be performed January 30-31, Marcus Performing Arts Center Vogel Hall. For tickets, visit https://link.edgepilot.com/s/cf950730/VzSY8Akt0EKXp6xznHHCRA?u=https://www.marcuscenter.org/event/hellenika-the-musical-a-public-reading/
