The Trojan Women
By Ellen McLaughlin
Directed by Barbara Oliver
Aurora Theatre Company
Berkley CA
2008
Important theater is theater that has an impact for the audience that will eventually push the audience to action. Therefore to be classified as important theater the theater has to have a message that is relevant for the time period and also the audience.
War, and the consequences of such have always been important topics of discussion, especially as of late. In a time in which we find ourselves emotionally and fiscally invested in war effort abroad, that in the end does not really help us as Americans in the long run, you are forced to question war and to examine its consequences. We all know the consequences for the soldiers involved. Death. But what is altogether to often forgotten is the affect it has on civilians and the innocent. It is true that many an innocent person has gotten caught up into the war, and have gotten hurt. But there are deeper wounds than physical wounds that take place. Emotional wounds that come from ulterior sources are intolerable. So at least on the surface The Trojan Women seems to have a message that needs to be heard at least for the time period. However, Our world today is so focused on the protection of the week and the helpless. So I ask is a play about women and he injuries concurred during war relevant for today’s audience? Is a rewrite of Trojan woman important theater for today?
I feel there has been so much of this type of material that has been produced in the last six years that the message has lost its potency. Since the American occupation of Iraq we have heard nothing but an overload of stories about the weak and helpless that have been hurt by war especially this war. As a humanitarian and a civil rights activist I am very familiar with the injustices that take place in this world, but I do not feel that a just war creates that situation.
Ellen McLaughlin’s adaptation of Euripides script was written about the tragedy that took place in Kosovo. That was the original setting, and in that setting I see the relevancy of the text and of the play, however, the Iraq War is a beast of a completely different nature. The production was, I feel, trying to draw similarities between the Greeks going for their own gain and invading Troy and the invasion of Iraq to halt the terror that Sadam was subjecting his citizens to.
There is no question of the validity of the story. There is a reason Euripides himself focused on the lives of others than the soldiers in war. There is a valid argument that people do get caught up in war. It is also a fact that many people do get hurt in wars that were not meant to and their story does need to be told. But their story needs to stop becoming a political statement taken out of context. But we as humans and especially Americans realize this fact.
The overuse of one thing can quickly turn something that did constitute important theater and quickly turn into something that is mundane and normal. Leaving this play I have no reason to ever think about what took place on that stage, there was nothing extraordinary about their presentation of the message. It was just another anti-war play to me that I have heard time an time again. It is the theater’s job to stay relevant in a time where other art forms are becoming mundane. Theater has the ability to constantly conform and still make a statement on the society around them. However if they do not do this and create something new, they are nothing but a clanging cymbal that has already been heard.
In a quick note about the theatrical aspects though, I did feel like there were times that it was well executed. Their use of the thrust stage to create a very intimate feel was particularly. I felt they took care of the space very well at times, using a lot of intricate floor patter to create some beautiful moments. By far the climax of the vignettes was when hector’s wife had her monologue ending with her on the floor in the middle of the stage. Her floor patter was beautiful. However there were too many holes in the rest of the play to make it believable. Their setting was not solidly set up I did not feel the sense of danger to them that should have been expected. I think the small holes especially in the setting made the play feel especially irrelevant and unimportant for the majority of its audience. With a city audience, especially Berkley residents, who are usually, very well informed about the injustice in the world this “important” theater scheme has been overplay
