RANSACKING TROY World Premiere to Open at The Stratford Festival

The Stratford Festival is presenting the world première of Ransacking Troy, a powerful and provocative new work by award-winning playwright Erin Shields. In this bold reimagining of Homer’s epic poems The Illiad and The Odyssey, Shields flips the lens on the Trojan War, offering an alternate ending told not through the eyes of warriors but through the voices of the women at its heart.

We all know the story: a Trojan prince abducts a Greek queen, sparking a decade-long war that ends with the fiery fall of Troy. But what if it didn’t have to end that way?
In Ransacking Troy, Penelope, long weary of waiting for Odysseus to return home from battle, takes matters into her own hands. She rallies a band of courageous Greek women and sets sail for Troy – her goal, to bring home her husband and forge a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Exploring timeless themes of war, power and resilience, Ransacking Troy recasts a familiar myth through a fresh, urgent perspective. As the women navigate a world reshaped by absence, they ask: what comes after war, and who gets to decide?
Helmed by acclaimed director Jackie Maxwell, this fierce, funny and deeply resonant production promises to be a theatrical experience unlike any other – epic in scope, intimate in emotion and powerfully relevant to our times.

Ransacking Troy features Maev Beaty as Penelope/Odysseus and Irene Poole as Clytemnestra/ Agamemnon/Iphigenia, with Yanna McIntosh as Eurydice/Hecuba/Nestor and Sara Topham as Aegiale/Helen/Cowering Woman/Diomedes. The production also features Helen Belay as Electra/Chryses/Thrasymedes, Sarah Dodd as Galax/Anax/Andromache/Hector/Old Woman/Greater Ajax, Ijeoma Emesowum as Psamathe/ Briseis/Trojan Soldier/Antilochus/ Circe/Cassandra, Katarina Fiallos, Caitlyn MacInnis as Cur/Hecamede/Lesser Ajax/Trojan Soldier, Marissa Orjalo as Hermione/Menelaus and Krystin Pellerin.

Maxwell is joined by Choreographer Esie Mensah, Set and Costume Designer Judith Bowden, Lighting Designer Michael Walton, Composer Deanna H. Choi and Sound Designer Thomas Ryder Payne.

Ransacking Troy has its official opening on August 21 and runs until September 28 at the Tom Patterson Theatre.