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Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
How Greek theatre shapes Ninja Theory’s flawed, conflicted portrayal of psychosis
BY EDWIN EVANS-THIRLWELL
Developer/publisher Ninja Theory Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release 2017
Only once Hellblade’s credits roll do we learn that the auditory hallucinations mobbing player-character Senua have a name: the Furies. It’s a nod to Greek myth, in which the Furies were goddesses of vengeance, hideous crones spawned from a Titan’s blood to hound oath-breakers to insanity. In modern culture the Furies have been reinvented as a psychological device, transformed from supernatural persecutors into expressions of self-loathing. In his poem ‘Reflections’, RS Thomas describes them as “at home in the mirror”, symptoms of “a shifting identity never your own”. Hellblade isn’t the only game to lean on this idea: Thomas’s line “no truce with the Furies” is the original title of Disco Elysium, in which character traits are garrulous warring personas. Here, the Furies have made themselves at home in the screen.
Senua’s voices certainly do their classical inspirations justice. Rendered using binaural recording techniques, with voice actors appearing to surround you like playground bullies, they keep up a barrage of spiteful remarks as the heroine wanders a ravaged eighth-century coastline strewn with manifestations of shame and grief. The classical connection goes beyond mere vengeful commentary, however: it’s also a question of stagecraft. The game’s portrayal of the Furies as an ethereal, background presence evokes the chorus of ancient Greek theatre. A group of nameless singers, at once part of the story and detached from it, the chorus was used to guide the audience’s emotions and impose a dramatic structure – for example, by entering and exiting to mark beginning and end.