Edinburgh Festivals

Fringe

Bitter Thorns
Debacle Theatre Company

David Perks

'Bitter Thorns' is a play supposedly based on the experience of the defeated Trojan women left behind after the sacking of Troy.

Triche Kehoe, author and director, used this as a vehicle to explore the totality of despair experienced by the powerless vanquished at the hands of their conquerors. Plumbing the depths of a single emotional response does not really make for the best way to connect with an audience.

This was worsened by the author's use of the device of a deranged rape victim to provide portents of future conflicts to come. The fact that a mad Trojan woman could forsee tanks, guns and mass bombing left you a little doubtful about the connection of the author with the subject of the play. This was heightened further by the playing of footage from Second World War newsreels and a musical accompaniment spoilt by ghastly electronic white noise.

Victims do not provide an appealing subject on their own. Hope is all that remained when Pandora opened the box. This play offered us no hope and left me cold.

Bitter Thorns was on at Augustine's.