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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > March > 24 > Entry
Review: ‘Troades’
Since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Greek play ‘The Trojan Women’ has frequently served as a vehicle for theatrical anti-war protest.
The Vortex Repertory Company’s show fits within this larger national phenomenon, but with a twist: These Trojan women sing. Adapted and directed by Bonnie Cullum with original text by playwright Susan Estelle Kelso, ‘Troades: The Legend of the Women of Troy’ makes a statement about the possibility for simultaneous unity and diversity of women, while underscoring the horror of war. Yet overwrought acting pushes the intense emotions of the play so constantly that the production somewhat undercuts its political promise.
The musical’s original score, written by Vortex co-founder Sean T.C. O’Malley, almost entirely features the cast’s women. As the women sing the same words together, but split along divides of harmony and melody, they become individuals together. The music, played live by Joe England on flute and percussion, Tom Nicolazzo also on percussion and Jeremy Herring on mandolin and guitar, deepened dialogue, too.
Accompanying Helene (Traci Laird), the music softened her seduction. In the final tableaux the music’s boom jarred the audience, thrusting them into the flames
destroying Troy.
Patricia Wappner layered Hekabe, the defeated queen of Troy, displaying complex emotional responses to war. She trembled with grief, and then shifted to hardened
cynicism in verbal duels with the Greek soldiers. But the other women wailed with so much sadness and anger throughout the play that their emotions were overwhelming, rather than compelling. And while repeated gestures commented on the words being spoken, the physicality seemed superficial, not emerging from a character’s entire body.
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