Trojan Women: A Version

translated from Euripides by emerita Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Classics Marianne McDonald

directed by emeritus Professor of Theatre Charlie Oates

Performance Dates

Method of Presentation and Ticketing

Presented on our digital platform. Tickets are free of charge. Please register for tickets using this Google Form.

The Cast

The Creative Team

About the Play 

A kidnapped queen. A fatal heel. A hollow gift horse. The story of the Trojan War has been told and retold across time, as have the tragic and treacherous tales of the homecoming heroes, but what happened in between? Trojan Women follows the survivors, the women of Troy who watched their city burn and their loved ones butchered by the Greeks who now claim them as spoils of war. Queen Hecuba is at the center of a grieving camp, doling out comfort and harsh truths equally while the women await their fates. Meanwhile, the body count continues to climb and both victors and victims are forced to confront the face that allegedly launched a thousand ships and even more tragedies, the woman whose body was made into a battlefield without her consent. Watching over it all from their perch on Mount Olympus, the gods contemplate their destructive creations and reconsider their allegiances. Euripides penned the play for an Athenian audience thousands of years ago, but the horrors of war have not been lost to time, and truly “everyone loses.” And what becomes of the spoils of war? In this adaptation by Professor Emerita Marianne McDonald, the war may have ended, but the battle over these women’s agency has just begun.

About the Translator

Marianne McDonald is Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Classics in the Department of Theatre at the University of California, San Diego, a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and a recipient of many national and international awards, including Greece’s Order of the Phoenix (1994) and Italy’s Golden Aeschylus Award (1998), many honorary degrees from Greece and Ireland; and San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame (2008). She is the founder and initiator of projects to computerize Greek literature (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae) and Irish Literature (Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae). She is a pioneer in the field of modern versions of the classics: in films, plays, and opera. With about 250 publications, in addition to her articles and book chapters, her published books include: Euripides in Cinema: The Heart Made Visible (Centrum Press, 1983), Ancient Sun, Modern Light: Greek Drama on the Modern Stage (Columbia University Press, 1992); Sing Sorrow: Classics, History and Heroines in Opera (Greenwood, 2001); and The Living Art of Greek Tragedy (Indiana University Press, 2003); with J. Michael Walton: Amid Our Troubles: Irish Versions of Greek Tragedies (Methuen, 2002); and The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre (2007). Her performed translations (three a year since 1999 nationally and internationally with many published) include: Sophocles’ Antigone, dir. Athol Fugard in Ireland (1999); Trojan Women (2000 and 2009); Euripides’ Children of Heracles (2003); Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus at Colonus (2003-4); Euripides’ Hecuba, 2005, Sophocles’ Ajax, 2006, Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis and Bacchae, 2006; and 2007 and 2009; Euripides’ Phoenician Women, 2009); Medea (2007); Seneca’s Thyestes (2008) and with J. Michael Walton Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Aristophanes’ Frogs (2007); Helen (2008); versions and other works : The Trojan Women (2000); Medea, Queen of Colchester (2003), The Ally Way (2004); …and then he met a woodcutter (San Diego Critics’ Circle: Best New Play of 2005), Medea: The Beginning, performed with Athol Fugard’s Jason: The End (2006); The Last Class (2007); Fires in Heaven (2009), and A Taste for Blood (2010).

About the Director

Charlie Oates taught movement and the creation of original physical theatre in the Department of Theatre and Dance, retiring in 2017. At UCSD, he directed Not Them!, 10 Human Beings, Heart of a Dog, Seven Against Thebes, A Lie of the Mind, Out of Silence: Stories, Poems and Essays from the Afghan Women Writer’s Project, War of the Worlds, Damascus and Peer Gynt. For Creede Repertory Theatre he has directed many productions, among them, The Mystery of Irma Vep, A Beautiful Country, Ladder to the Moon and Mrs. Mannerly. Productions elsewhere include: Where I Live and Fresh Paint for the Denver Center Theatre Company, Flush at Theatre Alfred in Prague, Save You, Hate Me at RAW Tempel in Berlin, Fool for Love at Chalk Rep, Fuatia’s Future for Calico Young People’s Theatre of New Zealand, That’s Baseball at the San Diego Rep and recently, Morph Masters for Phamaly Theatre Company in Denver. He has performed on the streets of Europe and toured theaters throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia. His work as a performer and creator of new works includes Truck Dog (with James Donlon), Staying Married (with Moira Keefe) and Man Overboard. He has been a movement coach and fight choreographer for productions at La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, San Diego Rep, Denver Center Theatre Company, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Mixed Blood and the Cincinnati Playhouse. As a teacher, he has been a guest at leading actor training programs around the world, taught in programs for disadvantaged populations and in elementary and high schools. While at UCSD he served as department chair and was a recipient of the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award. He lives in Missoula, Montana.