The original anti-war play updated to current day in a one-hour, one-woman retelling.
With one woman playing all the characters, from gods Athena and Poseidon to the prophet Cassandra doomed to never be believed, this retelling of the Euripides classic is sparked by a mother losing a child in a flash of modern-day warfare. The tour-de-force physical performance by Albanian actor Drita Kabashi opens with Irina, a mother from an unnamed war-torn land, who becomes compelled to embody every war-stricken Trojan woman the moment she realizes her child is gone.
The Trojan Women was the original anti-war play, performed in Athens in 415 BC as a protest against the Peloponnesian War, and depicts the cost of conflict through the lens of the women of the Iliad and their children. A Trojan Woman premiered in Athens before transferring to the USA, and now has its UK premiere at the Kings Head. Mixing elements of biting satire with a howl of grief and rage, it asks why the play has remained relevant for centuries.
Writer Sara Farrington said, “For me as a playwright, all props go to the ancient Greeks—they invented theatre, modern story structure, the concept of “the actor.” In his The Trojan Women, Euripides did one better and invented the protest play, told entirely from the female perspective, a bold artistic choice in 416 BC. Everything Euripides said then, I wanted to say now: that all war is born of fickle, uncaring gods (rich men), will always end in the murder of civilians (the poor, women, children) and that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can evolve out of our destructive nature. My version is wholly unacademic, written for contemporary audiences of all ages and backgrounds, easy to love and understand and wildly funny at times.”
Company information
Director Meghan Finn, Writer Sara Farrington, Costume by Suzanne Bocanegra Sound Designer Mike Cassedy, Producer Rachel Ackerman Tour and stage manager Hanna Yurfest, General management Aixa Amarante Naranjo for CDM Productions, Executive Produced by Stop The Wind Theatricals.
Performed by Drita Kabashi
Listings information
3 – 9 December
Kings Head Theatre, 116 Upper St, London N1 1QN, United Kingdom
Tues, Weds and Mon 9pm, Sat 8.30pm, Sun 8pm
Tickets: £10 - £25 - A Trojan Woman | What's On | King's Head Theatre