A Trojan Woman, King’s Head Theatre Review
A Trojan Woman at King’s Head Theatre. Photo by Stephanie Gamba
Written by Greta for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
A Trojan Woman is a retelling of Euripides’ The Trojan Women, dealing with the aftermath of the Trojan War through the lenses of women and children – blameless civilians who must suffer the consequences of gods’ and men’s arrogance alike. In this adaptation, the original play is juxtaposed with a more contemporary backdrop, highlighting the current resonance of its anti-war message.
After the victory of the Greeks, four women – Hecuba, Andromache, Helen and Cassandra – are waiting to hear which fate will befall them. All of them are to be reassigned to new Greek owners – the very men responsible for the slaughtering of their dear ones and annihilation of their city. These women are not fighting for power, but for dignity: the life ahead of them will be unbearable, and solace has to be found in the things they can control, like the proper burial of their children or even, in Cassandra’s case, in the awareness that their future death will carry with it rewarding irony and comeuppance.
A Trojan Woman aptly depicts this sense of powerlessness. The original cast is shrunk to one actress (Drita Kabashi) deftly impersonating not just all four women, but also the Greek envoy who communicates with them, the gods Poseidon and Athena and even the chorus. Kabashi shows great stage presence and a penchant for engaging storytelling, moving seamlessly from one character to another; her Andromache is strikingly heartfelt, and she amuses as the messenger Talthybius, rendered in this version as an eager, diplomatically peppy customer service guy who even hums his own hold music.
A lot is asked of the audience in the one hour of the show. As an enthusiast and former scholar of ancient Greek literature and mythology, I watched the show with an awareness of who the characters are, how they’re related, and the complex dynamics at play. However, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of what’s explained can be understood and absorbed by an audience who hasn’t done research. While the light-touch writing and relentless pacing ensure we are never bored, there’s no time for us to truly understand the experience of the women on stage and the relationship binding them to one another, the ones they’ve lost, and the ones they’re about to encounter. Short-term entertainment comes at the expense of retention, and you might find yourself with more than a few questions at the end.
The main drawback in my experience of A Trojan Woman is that none of the points made were explored in enough detail, or given necessary space to breathe. The ties of the original story with the contemporary world could have been strengthened, and the historical and biographical connections the show touches on are worth re-looking at, keeping in mind the mental agility and presence that an audience member can employ in one hour. The one-woman retelling of this play works, but the original source has to be adapted accordingly, perhaps reducing the number of characters and focusing on contextualising further a few essential relations.
The section concerning Helen of Troy sets out to maintain her ambiguity while making a much-needed point about women’s telling of abuse not being believed. Human experiences are not always coherent and happen not to follow the linear, unsoiled model that we love to construct with the benefit of hindsight. The play admits this powerful truth, which could have been the real “why” of the show, but ultimately falls short when Helen’s admitted ambiguity is seemingly traded with a more clean-cut and less open-to-interpretation version of the facts.
There are a lot of things to like in this production; the moments of humour are nicely positioned and cleverly constructed, like the two blue umbrellas used to signify the chorus and consistently providing a source of comedic relief. It’s a more immediate version of The Women of Troy for anyone who already knows the story; if you don’t, you might want to have a look at the play’s summary first.
At King’s Head Theatre until 9 December 2024
★★.5
