Review: ATHENA at 21ten Theatre
This coming of age fencing show runs through March 29.
ATHENA, now running at the tiny but mighty 21ten Theatre, is a keenly observed comedy about two high schoolers training for the Junior Olympics. They are, by turns, practice partners, rivals, and almost-friends. Gracie Gardner's play understands that the last of those is by far the most difficult challenge.
Mary Wallace (played by Isabel McTighe) is the classic overachiever: studious, responsible, with supportive and trusting parents. Fencing is one more thing to excel at, with hopes of college recruitment on the horizon. Athena (Alannah Patrice Walke) has had a harder road: a missing mom, an unsupportive dad, and a sport that functions as a lifeline. The fencing club is somewhere to go after school and a community that Athena hasn’t found anywhere else.
Both are highly competitive, both are confident, and both are teenagers, which means crushing self-doubt arrives frequently, without warning or mercy. Mary Wallace seems like the more adult one, but lives a very sheltered life and falls apart when losing. Athena swings between jaded worldliness and full-on petulant teenager, sometimes within the same sentence. Neither is quite as together as they would like, or would like each other, to think. The fencing practice serves double duty: literal training for competition, and figuring out how to relate to another person.
Alannah Patrice Walker and Isabel McTighe are both very good. If you’ve ever been a teenager, you will recognize parts of yourself in one or, more likely, both of their characters. I don’t know much about fencing, but the physical part of the show was a highlight. The final match, when the two actually compete, is a legit nailbiter.
Overall, ATHENA is a nuanced, funny, and true-to-life portrait of two young people trying to find their place in the world. It's well worth a visit to 21ten Theatre to see it. Details and tickets here.
Photo credit: Reed Alyson Photography
|
Join us for the 2026–2027 Season Portland Center Stage at The Armory (9/27-6/27) |
|
Into the Woods Mt Hood Repertory Theatre (8/07-8/23) |
|
The Dark Stuff Twilight Theater Company (8/20-9/06) |
|
Drinking Habits Hillsboro Artists' Regional Theatre (HART) (9/12-9/27) |
|
Jack Johnson at Hayden Homes Amphitheater Hayden Homes Amphitheater (9/27-9/27) |
|
Bluey’s Big Play Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (10/12-10/12) |
|
Dear Jack, Dear Louise by Ken Ludwig New Century Players Community Theatre (8/14-8/30) |
|
Billy Strings Matthew Knight Arena (10/06-10/06) |
|
FOOLISH MORTALS: A Haunted Mansion Burlesque Cabaret Alberta Rose Theatre (10/02-10/04) |
|
Weird Al Yankovic LB Day Amphitheatre (9/07-9/07) |
Reader Reviews
To post a comment, you must register and login.