SEASON TWO '08

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS
A SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION

THE WOMEN OF TROY

BY EURIPIDES
ADAPTED BY BARRIE KOSKY & TOM WRIGHT
DIRECTOR/MUSICAL DIRECTOR BARRIE KOSKY
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER ALICE BABIDGE
LIGHTING DESIGNER DAMIEN COOPER
SOUND DESIGNER DAVID GILFILLAN
FIGHT DIRECTOR KYLE ROWLING
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR BEN WINSPEAR

CAST
PATRICIA COTTER, ARTHUR DIGNAM, NATALIE GAMSU, MELITA JURISIC, ROBYN NEVIN, KYLE ROWLING, QUEENIE VAN DE ZANDT, JENNIFER VULETIC

MUSIC PERFORMED LIVE BY DARYL WALLIS

The men are dead but the slaughter continues. Imprisoned by their captors, the women of Troy huddle behind wire fences as their Greek conquerors mete out violence and destruction. Death seems a blessing given the alternatives, but fate walks a crooked line.

Following Malthouse Theatre’s 2005 Barrie Kosky sensation, Boulevard Delirium, then in 2007, we then set the stage for another triumphant homecoming for one of international theatre’s most potent and visionary artists with The Tell-Tale Heart, chilling the blood and firing the imaginations of Melbourne audiences. In 2008, he’s back - setting his sights on one of the biggest targets of all – in this exclusive presentation of Sydney Theatre Company’s premiere season of The Women of Troy.

Amid the ruin of Troy, Queen Hecuba struggles to find a path that will lead her women to freedom – visions and prophecies crowd around her, battling with the constant news of another child murdered, another friend betrayed. Her seemingly mad daughter, Cassandra sees even greater calamity ahead; her widowed daughter-inlaw, Andromache is to be enslaved; and then there is the woman whose face sparked war - Helen.

Millennia since its first utterance, Euripides’ tragedy still shudders with urgency and relevance as one of the greatest explorations of war’s unending horror. In 2008, the Helpmann Award-winning creative force of Barrie Kosky and Tom Wright again unite to unlock this timeless story’s terrifyingly contemporary resonances. Robyn Nevin makes a much-anticipated return to the Melbourne stage as Hecuba, while Melita Jurisic gives life to the three Trojan women who move in counterpoint to her dance with destiny. This startling stage world is carved with hues and shade through the language of music as an ensemble of sensational vocalists and musicians play chorus to the drama. Here, the expert hands of Kosky and Wright (The Lost Echo) reinvent not merely a classic, but the possibilities of the theatrical form itself.