Helen of Troy - we have all heard of her (legendary) beauty that caused a war. But what do we know about her story? Can we assert that she willingly succumbed to Paris’s charm without considering the possibility that she was ravished? Mixing myth and reality, Greek and French, Mélina Martin brings the most beautiful woman in the world into a troubling present, in which the echoes of Antiquity are coloured with an astonishing modernity. With tact and skill, and without ever over-doing it, she paints a portrait of a soul in pain, while also outlining the space for her forgiveness. Helen: trophy woman, abducted woman, wounded woman. Yes. But a woman standing tall before us, facing us despite everything and staring deeply into our eyes with her own, exciting admiration rather than compassion. Admiration, which in Greek, can be translated as Opα.

Production | Room To Rent

Coproduction | Arsenic – Scenic contemporary Arts Center (Lausanne, CH), PREMIO – pep price for scenic arts (CH), Graeco-swiss association Jean-Gabriel Eynard

A scheme created and funded by Pro Helvetia and Corodis, the Swiss Selection in Avignon is supported by the Geneva Republic and the Geneva Canton, the City of Lausanne, the Yverdon-les Bains municipality, the Vaud Canton, Neuchâtel City and Canton and the Swiss Society of Authors (SSA), the Ernst Göhner Foundation, Migros Culture Percentage, the Jan Michalski Foundation for writing and literature, the Petram Foundation, the Corymbo Foundation, the Fluxum Foundation, and the Consulate General of Switzerland in Marseille.

Mélina Martin, who has Greek and Swiss origins, initially trained in dance at the Dance Area in Geneva. She then attended La Manufacture - University of Performance Arts in Lausanne, graduating with a Bachelor degree in Theatre in 2016. She acts, dances, and works with various Swiss directors (including Anna Lemonaki, Jean-Damien Piguet, Adina Secretan, Karelle Ménine, and François-Xavier Rouyer), as well as international directors, such as Christiane Jatahy in Le Présent qui déborde (The present which is overflowing) and Romeao Castelluci in Democracy in America. She is also part of the CCC collective and takes part in the creation of new productions for non-theatres spaces as part of the director Mathias Brossard’s initiative. Opα is her first show and in 2017 it won the 2nd PREMIO - encouragement award for performing arts.