Desales University Act 1s streamed production of Greek playwright Euripides, "The Trojan Women" brings elements of present day war into the 5thcentury Greek play with harrowing results.
The play is considered Euripides best and one of the first to tell an anti-war story.
In the skillful hands of the Act 1 students, "The Trojan Women" is devastating and heartrending.
The play takes place following the fall of Troy, a the widowed Trojan women contemplate their fates as servants and concubines of their Greek conquerors.
The play opens with sounds of modern war and the guards watching the women all carry machine guns.
At the center of the play is Troys dethroned queen Hecuba, played with passion and desperate strength by Jess Gliot. Gliot manages to be regal despite having had her position and authority stripped from her. Her powerful emotion and humanity fills the stage even as the queen is under relentless assault.
As Hecuba mourns and tries to comfort the other women, Greek herald Talthybius arrives to tell the women their specific fates. PJ Moran allows glimpes of humanity to peek through the conflicted Talthybius as he delivers the harshest of news to the women.
Hecuba is to be taken away as a slave of the hated Greek general Odysseus, and her daughter Cassandra is to become the conquering general Agamemnons concubine. However Cassandra, who can see the future has gone mad.
Kay Danubios Cassandra sings and dances as she finds morbid delight in the news and foreseeing the upheaval her arrival will cause predicts "Troy will destroy the house of Agamemnon" with grim joy.
Andromache, wife of Hecubas son Hector who has been killed, arrives with her baby son, Astyanax and tells Hecuba that her youngest daughter, Polyxena, has been killed as a sacrifice at the tomb of the Greek warrior Achilles. Andromache is to be the concubine of Achilles son and, at first, Hecuba slyly advises she submit to the Greek warrior as a way to protect the baby so he will grow up.
But even this tiny hope is dashed when Talthybius reluctantly tells them the baby must die and will be thrown off the walls of Troy to his death.
Hayley Bonnett conveys undiluted grief and painful anguish as the distraught Andromache.
When Menelaus played with gruff strength by Will Pearce, comes to claim Helen who famously instigated the war, Hecuba make the case that she should die for her actions.
As Helen, Megan Castellane defiantly and proudly defends herself.
The chorus of captive Trojan women played by Elizabeth Junkin, Sydney Abbott, Josie LaTorres, Mikayla Johnson, Megan Dean and Courtney Bulger echo the despair of Hecuba and her daughters for a chilling effect and the plays ends with the haunting image of Hecubas agonized keening as Troy is burned.
The guards are played with appropriate menace by Jabari Williams, Iyanu Joshuasville, Kevin Regan and Dominick Esposito.
The play, directed deftly by Jessica Bedford, shows the cruel, brutality of the aftermath of war and the strength of the women as they move forward amid such tragedy.Photo:From left to right: Hecuba (Jess Gliot), Cassandra (CaSandra Kay Danubio), Chorus Members (Josie LaTorres & Mikayla Johnson), and Chorus Leader (Elizabeth Junkin)in Act 1 DeSales Universitys virtual production of The Trojan Women. Photo by Jacob Metzger