Review: Trojan Women (After Euripides), Alma Tavern & Theatre – ‘Fiercely experimental’

Bristol International Theatre Workshop comprises a group of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduates who have come together as an artist ensemble.

Their first show is a bold one. Not only is it a multilingual adaptation of Euripides’ classic play, but it is fiercely experimental. The performers have embraced a non-Western style of theatre based on the Suzuki method, with the aim of rediscovering a fresh form of energy onstage.

So, does the experiment work?

The story itself is not a new one. Trojan Women was first produced in 415BC and set after the dramatic fall of Troy. Equally well-trodden ground is the depiction of a desperate community, poignantly topical, being displaced, grief-stricken, and assaulted by occupiers in the aftermath of a catastrophic war.

The actors employ a multiplicity of languages on stage. Although this results in the dialogue not always being understood at any given time, it does focus attention on the actors’ physical experience in time and space.

Much of the movement is highly mannered and performed in, at times, a monotonous slow motion. Great use is made of this method of moving and I was struck by how time seemed to stand still at times. This was notably so when a series of pots were painstakingly removed from a bag.

Bizarrely dressed soldiers, played by Paul Williams and Israel Bloodgood, alternate between talking fast in a variety of European dialects, goose-stepping extremely slowly and then skittering about the stage like pneumatic insects. They drink and play a war game before indulging in a spot of brutality before leaving.

The use of various languages forces the audience to think deeper about the story, but unfortunately also has the effect of leaving a good degree of bafflement as to what exactly is happening during the mainly sketch like scenes. It was only on reading the playbill at the conclusion that I gained more insight into who the characters were.

Several further appearances, notably by Tom Brace-Jenkins as Astyanax and Maiya Louise Thapar as an old woman, are further exercises in highly stylised movement but the symbolism is too abstract to fully comprehend. There is plenty of evidence that the company has dived deep into how the story can be told, and there is much to applaud in creating an unfamiliar experimental narrative, but the tale is masked by too many ambiguities.

At the outset we meet a non-speaking statue (Emily Hurst) who remains stoically on stage throughout. She clearly symbolises something, but we are left to make up our minds what it is. But maybe that is the point.

At times, the performance resembles an improvisational piece and at others it nods towards the work of Becket and the Theatre of the Absurd, but it is clearly still a work in progress.

The show is described as “a collective stab in the dark at remembering what we may have forgotten”, but as with many experiments, more work is needed to arrive at the finished product.

Trojan Women (After Euripides) is at Alma Tavern & Theatre on November 28-29 at 8pm. Tickets are available at www.tickettailor.com.

All photos: Craig Fuller

Read more: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduates to perform multilingual re-working of Euripides

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