According to legend, Euripides was born in Salamís on September 23, 480 BC). He was the last, and least honoured, of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles). Eighteen of Euripides' plays have survived completely, with fragments
of others. He first competed in the Dionysia, the famous Athenian dramatic festival, in 455 BC,but it was not until 441 BC that he won first prize -the Judges found his non-conforming attitude difficult - and over the course of his lifetime, he claimed a mere four victories.
Euripides is known primarily for having reshaped the formal structure of traditional Attic tragedy by showing strong women characters, and by satirizing many heroes of mythology. His plays focus on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown to Greek audiences.
Celebrated plays include, The Bacchae, Mede and Orestes. Perhaps one of his more famous quotes is "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”
The Adaptation.
Eyewitness’ TROJAN WOMEN is an adaptation (rather than a translation) of Euripides’ original, spiced with certain historical morsels from Homer. The action takes place in 1200 BC, after the abduction of Helen and the ensuing conquest of Troy by a united Grecian army, led by King Agamemnon.
This adaptation follows Euripides’ original quite closely. I have retained much of Euripides tight, economic text and adapted it in a style that is I hope, acceptable to the modern ear but sufficiently removed to give the play its proper perspective.
It is not, however an abstract linguistic equivalent following the precise recipe of language, metre, verse and style. Such an adaptation of this powerful, harrowing Euripides classic tragedy might be hard to swallow. It would be too, well, Greek. Rather I wanted to take the Greekness out of the play. Euripides audiences were not, after all watching a Greek play and in matters of theology and myth (geography too) Greek references are virtually meaningless to us (well they are to me!)
As such, a contemporary bill of fare seemed more suited to modern theatrical palates and, consequently, only portions of the pie are in metre although there are the compulsory ingredients of tragedy - chorus, song and dance.
I have also taken some liberty with the linear structure of Euripides’ original. Hecuba (the mother of Cassandra) was the original’s lead role but her purpose is primarily to feed the Chorus and to introduce the three-course menu of Cassandra, Andromache and Helen, who enter and exit the action in sequence.
In our adaptation we have excluded Hecuba and placed the three protagonists on stage simultaneously, to dish up some ethical, emotional and personal conflict for our banquet – and to add an olive or two of romance.
I hope, also, that I have gone some way to render the value and significance of Euripides’ message. I wanted to portray what Euripides is saying to us rather than to audiences three thousand years ago.
Euripides’ portrayal of an ancient war offers us warnings we have not heeded.
The Greeks claimed they invaded Troy in order to impose a democracy on the Trojans who, they feared, were hoarding weapons of mass destruction, fashioned from iron imported from neighbouring Hittusa .
They believed by such an invasion they would benefit from developing lucrative trade opportunities.
They believed the war would be over in weeks. They stayed ten years.

TROJAN WOMEN is not an easy play to digest. Eyewitness earns its crust specialising in corporate training productions for Health and Social Services in the UK but sometimes we get the opportunity to make our daily bread on the Mainstream stage. We were tempted to cook up something light and calorie free for this festival - audiences do have a wide choice from the festival Carte du Jour, and there are lots of sweet, yummy comedies and revues on that desert trolley. Hopefully there are enough discerning palates out there to make our baking worthwhile.

Peter McGarry