The USNH Greek Trilogy Project, a joint effort of Plymouth State, Keene State and The University of New Hampshire’s theatre departments, opens here in Plymouth on March 7, beginning with PSU’s production of The Trojan Women.
Students may have various reasons to attend the production. Perhaps they know someone involved, are required to see it for a class, or have seen a poster that sparked their interest. Whatever the case may be, regardless of the age of the pieces, they connect to Plymouth State students and the world they live in.
Although the project is a joint effort between the three schools, David Kaye, the head of the acting and directing department at UNH, came up with the idea for the Greek Trilogy Project. It was originally intended to take place last year, but fell through due to scheduling conflicts. Once this first hurtle was passed, each theatre department chair proposed the play they wanted their school to perform, and the rest came together from that point.
However, according to Beth Cox, PSU’s theatre department chair, challenges didn’t cease after the decision was made. “You should see the e-mails going back and forth,” she said with a laugh. The biggest challenge with the project was a need to standardize in technical areas, which was difficult to achieve with performing spaces that weren’t identical.
The schools collaborated to make it work, though. Each play takes place on the same set, designed by Keene State’s set and lighting designer, Celine Perron, and the lighting plots were all compared and re-drafted to fit the needs of each school’s repertory light plot. The trilogy begins with The Trojan Women by Euripedes, and continues in sequence with Agamemnon by Aeschylus and Electra by Sophocles.
Paul Mroczka, the director of The Trojan Women, said he was both relieved and happy when he was assigned to direct Euripides. He describes him as poignant and the most liberal of the three Greek playwrights. Euripides writes female characters, and even gods, that possess emotion. They are humanized: something that was unheard of in his time.
Though Mroczka was originally going to write his own translation of the text, he ran out of time and the department ultimately went with Nicholas Rudall’s translation, which is quite modern in comparison to others. “One of the things you have is a translator who is adapting to the style of the playwright,” says Mroczka.
Not only is the language understandable, but because of the style of Euripides’ writing, the play is not just actors on stage speaking in booming monotone voices with arms outstretched in a statuesque stance. It’s a daughter being torn from her mother’s arms, a messenger combating his heart to report the news he must deliver, a mother mourning the loss of her child, a victorious warrior gloating about his winnings, or a grandmother crying aloud for her family and country. The play is about the repercussions of war.
In 1915, Francis Hovey Stoddard said, “To the common mind, in spite of all its horrors, there is still something glorious in war. Preachers have preached against it in vain; economists have argued against its wastefulness in vain. The imagination of a great poet alone can finally show to the imagination of the world that even the glories of war are an empty delusion. Euripides shows us, as the centre of his drama, women battered and broken by inconceivable torture… The victorious men, flushed with pride, have remorse and mockery dealt out to them by those they fought for, and go forth to unpitied death. Never surely can a great tragedy seem more real to us, or purge our souls more truly of the unreality of our thoughts and feelings concerning vital issues, than can The Trojan Women at this moment of the history of the world.” Though the “moment” Stoddard is referring to is World War I, the beauty of The Trojan Women is that it is timeless, as it could easily apply to other “moments” in history such as World War II, The Vietnam War, or The War on Terror.
This timelessness is baffling considering the age of the play. Mroczka said, ” The play is 2500 years old. It’s written about a country at least 500 to 1000 years earlier: The Fall of Troy. So now we have 3500 years, and what’s changed, but that we kill each other a little more efficiently?”
No matter the reason for seeing the play, keep in mind that-yes, it is a play and the people in it are actors, but they are portraying real people. In a time of war, these characters could be anyone.
Students interested in seeing any or all of The Greek Trilogy Project can go to the Box Office at the Silver Arts Center, or call it at (603) 535-ARTS. The Trojan Women will be playing March 7th at 7 P.M.., March 10 at 2 P.M. and 7 P.M., and March 11 at 2 P.M. Agamemnon will be playing March 8 at 7 P.M.., and Electra will be playing March 9 at 7 P.M. Ticket prices are as follows: Adult: $12 each, $16 for two plays or $21 for all three. Senior: $10 each, $14 for two plays or $18 for all three. Youth: $8 each, $12 for two plays, or $15 for all three. PSU Student: $5 each, $8 for two plays, or $12 for all three.