It’s a hefty undertaking, combining two plays by Euripides – ‘Hecuba’ and ‘Trojan Women’. Yet although there’s plenty of contemporary resonance in Glyn Maxwell’s new work, and more than sufficient breast-beating emoting in Alex Clifton’s production, the whole wields surprisingly little weight.
In the midst of a devastated Troy, Queen Hecuba is being held captive, along with her daughters and Andromache, the widow of her son Hector, while Agamemnon and the Greeks decide what to do with them. ‘We’re the bones a dog would bury, or the shit,’ snarls Andromache, while Hecuba and Polyxena take comfort in songs and ritualised storytelling, and Cassandra writhes in the throes of her own terrifying clairvoyance. Meanwhile, Agamemnon is losing his religion in the wake of the sacrifice of his own daughter Iphigenia, and derides the new-fangled notion of democracy.
Overwrought poetry sits uncomfortably alongside saltier, slangier parlance, a disjuncture also reflected in a mishmash of acting styles. There’s potency in the play’s vision of suffering under occupation, but a lack of focus lessens its impact.