Vancouver East Cultural Centre
December 2007-January 2008
Translated by George McWhirter
Directed by John Wright
Set & Costume Design by Marti Wright
Lighting Design by John Webber
Projections by Tim Matheson
Musical Direction by Wendy Stuart
Movement Direction by Wendy Gorling & Heidi Specht
Stage Managed by Noa Anatot
Production Management by Mélissa Powell
CAST: Linda Quibell, Anna Cummer, Lesley Ewen, Carmen Grant, Mia Ingimundson, Nicola Lipman, Laara Sadiq
Euripides’ Hecuba was first performed in the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, c. 424 BCE.
Troy has fallen to the Greeks. The return home of the Greek fleet is delayed by contrary winds, and the Trojan princess Polyxena, daughter of Hecuba, is sacrificed to the gods as a remedy. As Hecuba prepares for her daughter’s burial she learns that her youngest son, Polydorus, has also been killed. Grief-stricken and betrayed, the bereaved mother takes vengeance into her own hands.
Hecuba is a brilliantly devised journey through a landscape of moral ambiguity that outrivals any modern drama in the anguished truth of its vision. We see the play’s message as directly relevant to contemporary issues of revenge and retribution, victims’ rights, the feminist ethos, and the moral and political justification of violence.
A cast of seven women played all roles, male and female. The choral vocabulary included the sounds of traditional Eastern European women’s choirs and the ululations of grieving Middle Eastern women, forming a tonal bridge between Greek drama and our experience of conflict in contemporary life.
Anna Cummer, Nicole Lipman, Mia Ingimundson, Laara Sadiq
"A masterful study of a classical tragedy." West Ender
