In the aftermath of the fall of Troy, Agamemnon, the victor, locks horns with Hecuba, the vanquished queen. Both have suffered intimate loss — the sacrifice of a daughter, the murder of a son.
In Marina Carr’s bold response to Euripides (‘the most intensely tragic of all poets’ — Aristotle) there’s a demand for further bloodshed. In a brilliant display of ventriloquism the drama weaves threads of inconsolable rage and grief with fate, revenge and inevitable carnage. It explores the shreds of duty and honour as well as the terrible deeds hatred breeds as it touches bravely on Hecuba’s heroic nature and ‘the endless tears of women’.
