Paula Citron
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The Trojan Women
Stratford Festival
Written by Euripides (new translation by Nicholas Rudall)
Directed by Marti Maraden
Starring Martha Henry, Kelli Fox, Yanna McIntosh and Seana McKenna
At the Tom Patterson Theatre until Oct. 5
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The Stratford Festival production of The Trojan Women is a grave disappointment. Director Marti Maraden who crafted this year’s lovely staging of All’s Well That Ends Well has placed the play on a single dramatic note until it becomes a self-indulgent exercise in terminal whine.
Her cast includes some of the strongest women actors at the festival, but they are squandered in tedium. Maraden does nothing with her chorus who merely cling to each other, and who are indistinguishable in their grief as they wait to be parcelled out to the Greek victors.
It is Hecuba’s play, and Martha Henry chews up the scenery, but her vocal mannerisms are all too visible. Kelli Fox as Cassandra and Seana McKenna as Andromache fail to induce any sympathy. Yanna McIntosh as Helen needs more charisma as the woman who launched a thousand ships.
This production does not touch the heart.
The Trojan Women continues at the Tom Patterson Theatre until Oct. 5.