An anxious woman in a red puffer jacket quickly pushes a child’s trolley carrying a small blue puffer-jacketed figure. She says she wants to stay in her apartment but has been told they must evacuate the area.
It could be one of the regular scenes from Gaza. How many times have we witnessed that scene of terrified Palestinians fleeing their homes or a hospital where they sheltered?
She repeats the words till a sudden flash, an explosion without noise sends the blue puffer-jacketed figure flying across the stage as the woman crashes to the ground. We will return to those particular characters at the end of the play.
After a few moments, the grief-stricken woman rises as one of the women of Troy not long after the men of the city have been slaughtered by Greek soldiers and the women and children wait to hear their fate.
The story and characters we see are those of Euripides’ antiwar play The Trojan Women. The language is modern, direct and engaging. The politics are sharply written from the point of view of the victims with only a sardonic portrayal of the Greeks, their messengers and the Gods.
Drita Kabashi, directed by Meghan Finn, gives a sometimes ferocious, occasionally amusing and at times very moving performance as all the characters. As tears poured down her face, more than one member of the audience had tears in their eyes.
She is Hecuba, still in shock at the slaughter, worrying about the fate of her children. She is Cassandra, certain she knows how her captivity will end and also certain no one will pay any heed to her warnings. As Helen, she insists she is a victim of powerful men but hopes to survive by persuading her husband Menelaus that they can again become a loving couple. As Andromache, she consoles herself with her surviving son as they wait to be told whose slaves they will become.
No sympathy is extended to those responsible for the suffering. The messengers are portrayed as insensitive customer service operators, while the Gods sound like entitled billionaires happily remote from the horrors they have caused.
This production combines fine writing with a remarkably strong actor and an impressively bold director. It’s a creative team whose future work should be well worth watching out for.
Reviewer:Â Keith Mckenna