Euripides’ The Trojan Women A New Translation

THEA301 Presents: Euripides’ The Trojan Women A New Translation by Simon Perris

“A night of slavery that lasts forever and the sun never rises”
- Hekabe, The Trojan Women

Troy has fallen. Waiting, lost in the burning ruins of the once famous city, are the spoils of war: the final few whose fates are held in the hands of the Hellenic victors. Those who must await the certainty of despair: the women of Troy. Euripides’ The Trojan Women follows the broken souls of the surviving women, defeated in battle and fallen from nobility, who find themselves at the feet of the Greek masters.

THEA301 presents a new translation by Simon Perris of Euripides’ tragedy, The Trojan Women, directed by Bronwyn Tweddle. Being performed less than a week after International Translation Day, this is a world premiere of Perris’ translation which has been crafted to bring an accessible and contemporary context to Euripides’ Ancient Greek text. Likewise, Tweddle and the company have chosen to complement the updated text by designing the play around a Steampunk and Mad Max inspired aesthetic that reflects the destruction and decimation of Troy.

Simon Perris, senior lecturer in Classics at Victoria University specialising in Greek drama and stagecraft, said of his translation of The Trojan Women that it “is something of an experiment”.

When asked to nominate a chorus-heavy play, Perris’ immediate thought was Trojan Women as “the chorus of Trojan captives has a prominent role, as do a number of female main characters”. In translating the text, Perris set himself a task: to “translate Euripides’ text in clear, regular English, in verse, such that a company of non-specialists could make it work, outside, with a full fifteen-member chorus, in 2016”.

Directing Perris’ translation is course co-ordinator Bronwyn Tweddle. No stranger to working with translated texts, she frequently collaborates and works with international theatre companies and delivers many innovative practices to this performance. She is aided by kaumātua Rangimoana Taylor who has also helped to guide and support the company throughout the rehearsal process. The Trojan Women is an unrelentingly dark piece; however, this production by THEA301 hopes to reveal the allure that has drawn audiences to tragedies for millennia, and engage with problems that have arisen throughout history and ceased to end.

Where: Studio 77 Amphitheatre, 77 Fairlie Terrace (Gate 10 of VUW), Kelburn

When: 7pm, Wednesday 5 October – Sunday 9 October 2016

Tickets: Waged $16, Unwaged $8

To book: Bookings on Eventfinda,

Warning: This production of The Trojan Women is an outdoor performance. It also contains dark themes and explicit language. May not be suitable for some audiences. R13.

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