The Trojan Women

The Greeks besieged the city of Troy for 10 years. Now the destruction is complete. Ruins, rubble; dying people heaving from the Trojan streets as the victors descend on the city. Among the ruins, once temples, columns of fire rising, broken bridges and walls, are the surviving women: Hecuba, former queen, Andromache, widow to the Trojan hero Hector, and Cassandra, daughter of the king before the Greeks’ victory, now gifted with prophecy. The survivors portray their desperation, try to find meaning in the catastrophe. The victorious Greeks draw lots to determine which man gets which woman. With one draw a queen becomes a slave, a daughter a wife. What was taken as a given suddenly crumbles into pieces. After the war, what remains of values, (social) order, culture and certitude? The Trojan women leave what was once their home and board the Greek ship into the unknown.