The Women of Troy was written by Euripides and was first produced in 415 BCE, during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. The events of the play take place during the much earlier Trojan War, today estimated to have occurred between 1260-1180 BCE. It is believed that Euripides may have written The Women of Troy in an attempt to encourage his Athenian audience to empathize with the suffering of the citizens of Sparta, who were slaughtered and enslaved after the Athenian capture of the island of Melos earlier that year. It has been over 2,400 years since the Ancient Greeks first reckoned with this work and it’s infuriating and depressing how relevant its themes are to the world today. Dalhousie Fountain School of Performing Arts presents Don Taylor’s translation of The Woman of Troy at the Sir James Dunn Theatre until November 30th, 2019 and the work feels both immediate and contemporary.
The play is set in Troy at the end of a disastrous war with the Greeks, the Trojan men have been killed, many of the Trojan women have been raped, and the survivors are going to be taken as slaves and concubines for the Greek soldiers and their families. Hecuba (Lyn Estuye) is the mother of slain Trojan soldiers Hector and Paris, and of Cassandra (Sarah Nearing), the seer, and she is the Mother in Law of Andromache (Danielle Toner). She is the former Queen and the Matriarch of the community and it’s clear that part of the trauma the Greeks have inflicted on her is being forced to watch the death and suffering of all her loved ones and the destruction of her homeland. Talthybius (Jeremy Dimitri) is the emblematic soldier who, perhaps, quietly disagrees with what he is doing, but is “just following orders” regardless. His impotence when he is tasked with bringing Andromache’s baby son to the Greeks to be murdered is especially resonant. Greek soldier Menelaus (Jacob Hemphill) then comes to Troy to “reclaim” his wife Helen (Tori Devine) (who, according to legend had been given to Paris by Aphrodite because she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, thus instigating the War) and instead of blaming Menelaus, Paris, or Aphrodite Hecuba blames Helen for Troy’s misfortunes and she makes the case to Menelaus that Helen should be killed in cold blood. At the end all the Trojan women are escorted from their homeland and herded toward rape, death, and servitude while Troy burns behind them.
Don Taylor’s translation evokes the epic tragedian style of Euripides, but also uses more contemporary language to ensure that the story resonates in a way that is accessible for today’s audiences. Samantha Wilson directs the piece and further brings these characters into our world by setting the play in a time that feels like it could be sixty years ago, or it could be today, or, terrifyingly, it could be fifty years from now. Troy could be Poland, it could be Syria, it could be Halifax. The lighting and sound design by Bruce MacLennan is vivid to the point of being viscerally disorienting at times, and combined with a post-apocalyptic set by John Pennoyer we immediately feel the chaos, fear and despair left in this traumatized community ravaged by violence.
The students all give strong performances, particular stand outs include Tori Devine’s shrewd and manipulative Helen, Sarah Nearing as the misunderstood Cassandra and Danielle Toner’s heartbreaking portrayal of Andromache. Lyn Estuye’s Hecuba is the play’s most powerful force, her ferocity of grief, anger, and the continual realization of her own helplessness, in spite of her wisdom and strength of character, is the play’s tragic heartbeat.
As Wilson writes in her Director’s Note, “Reports from the UN show that in current conflicts, war disproportionately affects women. Women become tactical weapons, casualties and are left to live with the aftermath and consequences of war.” Similarly, reports now say that women are also disproportionately vulnerable to Climate Change for the same reasons. Of course, marginalized and racialized women are the most profoundly affected by both, and the allusions to the Trojan women being forced from the land of their ancestors, their entire histories destroyed, is especially poignant here on unceded Mi’kmaw land. The Ancient Greeks felt that Tragedies like this one were important to stage because they allowed audiences to be overcome by their largest emotions, in the hopes that they would experience a catharsis. In this play in particular, Euripides is encouraging his audience to humanize and empathize in this way with their enemy, a lesson that could not be more apt for the world as we head into a new decade of uncertainty, political and environmental unrest and widespread ideological divisiveness.
Dalhousie Fountain School of the Performing Arts’ production of The Women of Troy runs from November 26th to November 30th, 2019 at the Dalhousie Arts Centre’s Sir James Dunn Theatre (6101 University Avenue, Halifax), with performances at 7:30pm and a Saturday matinee at 2:00pm. Tickets are available from the Dalhousie Arts Centre box office.
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