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Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy review – classical myth burns into modern England

Theatre Royal Stratford East, London In Ava Pickett’s tense play, Michelle Dockery’s heroine returns to a Towie-styled world where the violence and misogyny are all too recognisable‘And Zeus created … Essex.” Playwright Ava Pickett set her award-winning debut, 1536, in her home county during Tudor times: her latest has Helen of Troy returning home to a Towie-style living room at the end of an English civil war.An Adidas-clad Messenger functions as chorus, bringing us up to speed on this new England where angry men have rioted and petrol-bombed, wreaking havoc in Helen’s name after she left her husband, Marcus, for a so-called “foreigner”. The cream carpets and glass coffee tables belong to Cee – Helen’s best friend, married to Marcus’s big brother Mario – and it’s here that the men arrive with a shivering Helen to toast their victory with prosecco.At Theatre Royal Stratford East, London, until 10 October Continue reading...