A TROJAN WOMAN by Sara Farrington to be Presented at Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College

 A Trojan Woman,  a one-woman play by Sara Farrington adapted from Euripides’ The Trojan Women, will play at the Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College as part of the 39th Powerhouse Season from July 25-27, it was announced today. Starring Drita Kabashi, A Trojan Woman is directed by Meghan Finn (The Tank’s Artistic Director).
 
A Trojan Woman brings an ancient story into the heart of today’s headlines. Set in the aftermath of war, a woman and her child find themselves alone in a ruined city, echoing the sorrow and devastation of the women of Troy after the city’s fall to the Greeks in the Trojan War.
 
The play follows her journey as she steps into the voices of ten different characters — each one telling a story of loss and survival. At its core, it’s a mother’s grief that shows the lasting cost of war. 
 
"Because I love an impossible playwriting challenge, I chose the one Greek play to adapt that I’ve always struggled with: Euripides’ The Trojan Women,” said playwright Sara Farrington. "To me, as a young, inexperienced artist, it felt like hours of women lamenting to uncaring gods and, strangely, very little happened onstage. Then I got it. Of course it’s a lament to uncaring gods! Of course nothing happens! That was Euripides’ whole point! The Trojan Woman was revolutionary because in one unexpected theatrical gut-punch, Euripides courageously holds a mirror right up to the bloodthirsty Athenian government’s face and says guys, it’s pointless, and The Civilians suffer most. I wrote the play because I just can’t believe we as a human species continue to scorch the earth in war, still, knowing the outcome is always the same. My hope is that the play will bring on the catharsis theater was invented for."
 
"I am delighted to bring A Trojan Woman back to my old stomping grounds, The Powerhouse,” said Stop the Wind producer Carol Ostrow. “It's a powerful story to tell -- the first anti-war play retold through the eyes of a contemporary writer. A Trojan Woman grapples with and ultimately confronts the indiscriminate cruelty of war.”
 
A Trojan Woman premiered in Athens in 415 BCE as a powerful resistance to the horrors of the Peloponnesian War, now it is known as the original anti-war play.
 
A Trojan Woman features scenic design by Christopher Swader and Justin Swader (DIG; Little Women; Dreamgirls), costume design by Claudia Brown (The Place We Built; What I Did Last Summer), lighting design by Brian Aldous (The Invention of Tragedy; The Offending Gesture), compositions and sound design by Mike Cassedy (The Invention of Tragedy; The Lesser Magoo), and developed and produced by Carol Ostrow of Stop the Wind Theatricals.