David Walmsley and Eileen Walsh
(Picture: Peter Searle)In this mesmerisingly compelling work, playwright Marina Carr examines the Trojan War through the eyes of Clytemnestra, Cassandra and Cilissa - the wronged wife, the victory-spoil and the house-slave of Troy’s destroyer Agamemnon. It’s told through a mixture of dialogue and first-person narration, in contemporary language that echoes the cadences and imagery of Greek tragedy. I was gripped from start to finish.
The cast of this co-production between the Kiln and Dublin’s Abby Theatre use a mixed bag of accents – northern Irish, northern English, Canadian - and it’s staged by director Annabelle Comyn in modern dress on a set strewn with cinders and dominated by a double-bed. A haunted, driven Eileen Walsh and a vulpine, muscular David Walmsley – he gets his shirt off a LOT - as the royal couple head up an exceptionally strong cast.
