Women of Troy Program

Authors

University of Maine Portland-Gorham Theatre Department

Files

Description

Written by Euripedes

Directed by William Steele

From the program:

The Women of Troy is the third play in a trilogy, the remainder of which has been lost. The play stands on its own as an examination of the tragedy of victory with each of the participants sharing the tragic flaw.

Euripides intended the play as a protest of Athenian policies. First produced in the midst of a long war with Sparta, it holds an obvious reference to the previous year's slaughter of the citizens of Melos, a neutral island, by the Athenian army. The foreboding aura of conclusion that permeates the play proved prophetic as Athens surrendered to Sparta scarcely a decade later.

It would be a mistake to assume that The Women of Troy is, merely, an anti-war protest. Euripides uses that rhetoric of the victor and vanquished to examine the hazy outline of truth. The characters wander through a distorted world, caught between the mythic events of The Iliad and The Odyssey, in search of new bases for their lives. Their prophecies, duties, loyalties and loves spawn contradictory truths that fuel the play's central conflicts.

Publication Date

Spring 1976

City

Gorham, ME

Keywords

Theatre, University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre, Theatre Program

Accession Number

78-169

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Theatre and Performance Studies | Theatre History

Comments

Cast

Voice of Poseidon ... Albert Duclos
Voice of Athene ... Jocelyn Pollard
Hecabe, widow of Priam King of Troy ... Jeanne Spurlock
Chorus of captive Trojan Women ... Caran Graham, Holly Simpson, Janice Craige, Zennie Gould, Martha Gallagher
Talthybius, a Greek herald ... Alec Diamon
Cassandra, daughter of Hecabe ... Kathleen Feato
Andromache, daughter-in-law of Hecabe ... Susan Labrie
Astyanax, son of Andromache ... Jason Spurlock
Menelaus, a Greek general ... John Dipierro
Helen, his wife ... Diane Osteen
Guards ... Randy Burns, Matt Perry, Mike Peters, Mike Tooher

Location: Box 10, RG 5/9, Folder 1

This is an item from our University Archives in USM Special Collections. If you are interested in obtaining copies of any of the items in the collection please view our Reproduction Policy and contact the department. If the material is to be used in a public forum.

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Please cite as: [Title], Special Collections, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For any other questions please contact the Special Collections Department at: susie.bock@maine.edu.

Recommended Citation

University of Maine Portland-Gorham Theatre Department, "Women of Troy Program" (1976). Theatre Programs 1970-1989. 13.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/theatre-programs-1970-1989/13

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