McDowell High School’s Center for the Performing Arts production of The Trojan Women brought the audience to tears because its universal themes and emotion spans time periods and wars.
The Trojan Women, written by playwright Ellen McLaughlin, follows a group of women from Troy right before they are sent off to be slaves to the Greeks. This story gives the audience several perspectives of what war does to a group of people and can be used as symbolism for modern day events. The play shows how war can affect everyone, not just the people fighting in it. This play is filled with heavy emotional moments that make the audience think about how people suffer during times or war.
Ellen Mclaughlin wrote this play from translated pieces of original script of The Trojan women from ancient Greece. She was heavily inspired by the Bosnia-Serbian conflict which was going on at the time she wrote the play.
Dr. Nicholas Emmanuele, the director of McDowell’s production, says “When the playwright originally directed the play, she had it performed in multiple languages from refugee women of the Bosnian War of the mid-1990s. In a nod to this, I asked students to translate lines into Ukrainian, Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin,” he said. “Some lines are spoken in those languages, and when the cast speaks English, translations in other languages are projected as subtitles. The idea is to represent how people from all over may find themselves in new homes and building new communities [during times of war].”
While McLaughlin was originally staging the play she cast people from both sides of the conflict. She did this to show that no matter the outcome, everyone loses something, whether that be family, friends, land or homes. The message makes this show known as one of the greatest anti-war shows written.
This parallels modern day refugees who are separated and cut off from their loved ones. “Ellen McLaughlin’s The Trojan Women was written to explore the refugee experience. The plot follows the surviving women of the mythical Trojan War, but the messages explore the cruel consequences of war and what happens to everyday people who are uprooted because of violence,” Emmanuele said.
The cast of McDowell’s version of Trojan Women included 29 student actors, 1 teacher, four student translators, and six stage crew members.
The show ran from May 14 to May 16 with a show running each day. The cast and crew had less than seven weeks to get the show ready for an audience.
During those weeks the cast got to meet with the playwright Ellen McLaughlin and refugees from USCRI Erie (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants) to get a better understanding of the show.
