Troilus and Cressida

For ten years the Greek army has been encamped around the walls of Troy. The siege is getting nowhere, the war is stalemate - and the reason is that the Greek commanders are at each others throats. In particular, Agamemnon has stolen a prisoner of war from Achilles and Achilles is sulking and refusing to fight. Meanwhile in Troy, Troilus tells her shameless uncle Pandarus, that he is in love with Cressida and she with him. The play is full of tremendous passions – in war, in sex and in self image; the focus constantly changes from the intimacy of the central affair, to the wider picture of pointless skirmishes in a war which seems to have neither purpose nor any end in sight; and each perspective colours the other. This play which is comic, tragic, cynical and ironic by turns is completely absorbing and disturbingly modern.

Taking inspiration from the themes of effeminacy and feminine masculinity which colour the play, this production pits the women as Trojans against the men as Greeks.

This play is not suitable for children. Recommended age 13+