Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2005

Women of Trachis
C, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Dolan Cummings
posted 27 August 2005

There is a tendency, especially on the fringe, to emphasise the 'universality' of ancient Greek theatre by updating the action to show how relevant its themes remain to the war in Iraq, the politics of spin or whatever. In contrast, Cambridge ADC's production of Sophocles' Women of Trachis is refreshingly irrelevant and often plain weird.

The emphasis is very much on the chorus, the six women of the title, who sing and dance us through the story, ensuring we react to its theatricality rather than getting hung up on its 'timeless theme' or whatever. The ability of the dancers is mixed, but that doesn't matter: their movements force the audience to be in the moment, responding to the drama in its immediacy. The effect is charming as well as engaging, as is that of the original music and singing.

Women of Trachis is a tragedy of a particular type, involving malicious gods, centaurs and prophesies rather than recognisable human hopes and failings. To a contemporary audience, there is a grim inevitablity about the tragic ending only because life is just like that, isn't it? Rather than reducing the play to such a banal level (and, even worse, bringing contemporary politics down with it), this production does well to go for weird theatricality instead. Arguably this is where the universality of ancient Greek culture truly lies.