There is an old saying: “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” I guess it depends on the circumstances. My preference for this story was to make it a musical comedy, the format I have the most fun writing. That said, There are issues involved in this story that make it tricky.
This story revolves around Eve’s coming to terms with her past in order to face the challenge of the present: the threat of citywide violence, crucifixion, & the destruction of the Elijian cult she’s just joined. Not the stuff of comedy, you’d think!
At the center of this story is Eve herself, who had no comedic lines on the show (outside of the You Are There parody). Furthermore, comedy eps on #Xena always had a serious subtext. In fact, some of them were originally dark dramas, flipped to comedy for various reasons.
In order to acclimate myself to this challenge, I did a number of things. First, I wrote it as a serious drama. It helped me to take the story’s issues seriously, & to bring in characters from the original show on an equal footing. I added layers of comedy to their scenes once I was certain I had a good grasp of the drama. Some were very easy to convert to comedy. Both #Xena & #Gabrielle had a history of comedic performances, so I had a good feel for their style. Ares & Aphrodite were the comedic relief, so it was more a matter of adding deeper layers to their story than the other way around.
Salmoneus would seem to be easy, but he has a unique style that can get quite meta, so it was more a case of trying to channel #RobertTrebor’s sense of ad-libbed humor. I read his recent book of political satire #TheHaircutWhoWouldBeKing which I very much enjoyed, so it helped me get an idea of his voice independent of the show’s writers. Sal’s daughter was a bit trickier, since hers is a more dramatic role, but she shares some of Sal’s traits & manic energy, which was helpful.
Eve was the most difficult of all, & in fact, her story got darker the longer I worked on it. Her life’s an amazing journey, & I explored as many of its emotions as I could, but it didn’t fit the story tonally. I reviewed as many of Xena’s similar episodes (such as Locked Up & Tied Down) to get a sense of how the writers & Lucy juggled her darker issues with the energy of her action scenes & comedy (which is present in every ep, no matter how dark), & that helped me find an approach.
As it happens, I have no trouble imagining Eve’s sense of humor in a future revival/spin-off. There’s another saying: Comedy is tragedy + distance, so a revival would give Eve decades of distance. But this story is set only days after Motherhood, between 2 tough eps for Eve so it’s hard to figure out where Eve’s sense of humor is at this moment. The writers themselves couldn’t figure it out, either, it seems; earlier drafts don’t show any humorous lines for her. I don’t blame them. As I see it you can’t write comedic lines for her unless you know exactly where she is at this moment, & I don’t think anyone really did.
It seems to me that Eve’s character was in flux during this time, & her backstory not really known by anyone. Adrienne made her own backstory, but it had to be revived constantly as new scripts with new surprises about her past came up. Actors were encouraged to improvise (& she did for You Are There) but Eve wasn’t a character that lent herself to that. Perhaps Eve’s status as a religious leader like St Paul meant they had to tread carefully with her.
That may explain why Eve’s first comedy scenes wait until her 2nd to last appearance. Eli himself didn’t have any real comedy scenes either despite being a street performer. So the challenge for this story is clear: to give Eve comedic scenes, there needed to be a logical psychological framework for it, & that required a clear backstory to shape it. Once I did that, her comedic lines felt more authentic to me, & her point of view actually helped shaped the visual look of the story, over time.
Though I tried as often as possible to imitate the look of the show, I decided to customize that look to integrate it with Eve’s sense of humor, & allowed her to respond more organically to it. We’re seeing the world through her eyes, so I believe it feels more genuine. I feel this is in keeping with the show’s spirit since it often customized locales & costumes to give each town its own look, so the townsfolk & Roman soldiers of Cyprus would also have their own look as well. Cyprus does appear on #HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys & does indeed have its own look, but I’ve taken that idea further, borrowing some elements while setting the action in the northern sector of the city, near the ports & canal district, whose influences are more Asian, Egyptian & Indian, more connected to global trade. There’s no visible Greek influence, of course, in keeping with the show’s aesthetic.
It was a lot of fun exploring this side of Eve, though it was a gradual process, but I was able to pull from the original show opportunities for humor that were left unexploited, & of course Adrienne herself has a great sense of humor, so I feel like I’m staying true to Eve’s experience.