TROAS

Troas is strongly anti-war. Set in an unspecified era, the play casts three mythological heroes of the Trojan War: Priam, Hector and Astyanax, as messengers of the warlike. Dimitris Dimitriadis writes in the prologue of the play: ‘Not to be played as a political manifesto or document theatre but rather as a symbolic poem of our war times.’

Troas is a triptych composed of three monologues in three parts. In the first part, Priam, Hector and Astyanax all speak of their war experiences. In the second part, each character speaks as one of the other two. In the third, Troas speaks in all three voices: one voice comprising three generations, which finally takes the play to the point of catharsis.

“Father, son and grandson – three heroes, three generations, three periods of Sophocles’ creative work. Three prominent mythical figures and three currently living earthy beings agree to recognise and acknowledge the truth of war. The fact that they themselves are war and that they wouldn’t be what they are without war. Ultimately, this acceptance is the first step to make them human. Even now that they are dead. Priam/Hector/Astyanax, constituting a whole, a complete composition where War is the first and last word.”
Dimitris Dimitriadis

Director Alexandra Kazazou
Writer Dimitris Dimitriadis
Performers: Kerem Karaboğa, Salih Usta, Cem Üzümoğlu, Ayça Guler, Maja Sivasankaran Nair (in Poland)
Stage, light designer Karol Jarek
Music composition by Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou, Petros Malamas
Director assistants İpek Seyalıoğlu, Mertcan Semerci
Technical Support Didem Kırış, İpek Seyalıoğlu
Premiere 2 December 2016, Kadıköy Theatron, Istambul, Turkey
Running time 50 minutes

photos by © Λευτέρης Τσινάρης