Counter Culture

The Trojan Women 
Emmanuel Theatre Company

Space 1; £5 (£3.50) / 0845 508 8316
theSpaces on the Mile, Edinburgh
80 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TH

This intense, gripping reworking of Euripides’ classic text brings home the true horrors of war for the women left behind to cope with an atmosphere of bitterness, reprisal and recrimination. It has been updated with images of contemporary conflicts raging today – and God knows, there are plenty of them going on, from Gaza to Syria to the Congo.

All the horrific images are here; the child ripped from its mother’s arms by smirking soldiers to be dashed to death, the rape and pillage of the wives and daughters of fallen enemies, the deceitfulness and self-delusion of the conquering soldiers and politicians and the loss of innocence of young people whose trivial everyday lives have been turned upside down when apparent victory turned overnight into defeat and bloody retribution.

This is not an easy play to watch, but as we contemplate the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War of 1914-1918 and the growing readiness of our political leaders in Britain and ‘the international community’ to resort so easily to war, it is a timely reminder of the real human cost of such conflicts.

**** four stars