Hecuba: the war that never ended
The background of this wonderful performance at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, was the sacking of Troy by the Greek armada, led by Agamemnon and his cronies. Euripides wrote Hecuba around 424 BCE, his second of several plays inspired by the Trojan War and its repercusions.
The intimate Theater Upstairs, was the ideal setting for this play. I felt as if we were at the center of the stage and the acting was taking place around us. The modesty of the setting powerfully conveyed the refugee camp in Thrace,where Hecuba, her daughter Polyxene, and their small entourage sought shelter after the fall of Troy.
Marsha Mason’s performance as Hecuba was exhilerating and heart wrenching. Hecuba’s tragic figure was balanced by the strength and pride of her daughter Polyxene, played by Monet Butler, an alumna of DePaul’s Theater School.
Across this dipole, defined by the superb performances of Mason and Butler, balanced the characters of Odysseus, Talthybius, Agamemnon, and Polymestor.
Juan Chiordan brought Odysseus’ cunning character to life and added the veneer of humanity that Euripides bestowed on the ruler of Ithaki. James Harms, as Talthybius, offered a brief but remarkable performace as the old servant, full of respect and compassion for Hecuba’s drama.
Euripides was fascinated by the drama of the women of Troy, following the fall of their city. Hecuba was only one of his plays based on the flight and despair of these women. In his Trojan plays, Euripides painted the dark picture of a people abandoned by their gods, whose fate grew gloomier by the day. The war, as a military operation, may have ended, but its ravaging repercusions gave it the aura of immortality: as far as the women of Troy were concerned the war never ended.
A military campaign that started with the sacrifice of Electra, Agamemnon’s daughter, ended with the sacrifice of Polyxene, daughter of Agamemnon’s arch-enemy Priamus. This cyclic symbolism in Euripides plays Hecube and Electra is accentuated by the focal point of the war: Helen of Troy.
The Trojan war was a war about women and it was the women who despair in the war’s aftermath. Helen’s (voluntary?) abduction triggered this war, that was enabled by the sacrifice of Electra, and was ended with Polyxenes’ sacrifice. Ultimately the Trojan war was rendered absurd in Helen, when Euripides suggests that the war was fought over a phantom. Yet the losses of the war lingered in the memories of the women, while the men of Greece marched (or sailed) victoriously back to their homes.
A woman caused the war, a woman had to be sacrificed to get the armada to sail to Troy, and yet another woman had to be sacrified to get the armada to sail home. Are these seeds of misogynism scattered around by Euripides? My interpretation is yes, they are. Greeks in the 5th century BC were fond of misogynism. Herodotus, the pressumed first historian, writes as much at the very beginning of his first book:
Now as for the carrying off of women, it is the deed, they say, of a rogue: but to make a stir about such as are carried off, argues a man a fool. Men of sense care nothing for such women, since it is plain that without their own consent they would never be forced away.
It is plain then, that women are the cause of all misfortune, as Herodotus suggests and Euripides depicts. Men are just the bystanders, available to obey and follow orders without any critical thought. Right!
Absent from the playbill is a credit to Savina Yannatou, the remarkable vocalist, whose music was heard briefly during the play.
