The Greek general Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia before the war has even begun – in return for favourable winds from the gods. Once the war has ended, Polyxena, the only surviving virgin from the Trojan royal house, is slaughtered as a youthfully fresh reward for bloody acts of heroism. In ten years of fierce battles, the legendary Trojan War, framed by the sacrifices of two girls, claims countless lives. Ultimately, the entire city of Troy is brutally destroyed thanks to a cowardly subterfuge on the part of the Trojans’ Greek enemies. Only the women taken as prizes are left, tormented by the loss of their homeland, husbands and children, many of them humiliated by the violation of their own bodies. They are defenceless against the despotic violence of the victors. Their torments are the collateral damage of the war, and their future is slavery. Approximately 2,500 years ago, Euripides provided his audiences with a playfully poignant reminder of a simple, terrible truth that remains valid to this day: war is pervasive, claims countless victims and causes inexorable suffering. In her third piece for the Schiffbau, director Karin Henkel (“Elektra,” “Die zehn Gebote”) transports this ancient discourse into a timelessly orbiting cycle – in Muriel Gerstner’s multi-part set – of plunder, women and war.
“The fate of women in the Trojan War: Karin Henkel’s impressive production of ‘LOOT WOMEN WAR’ at the Schiffbau Theatre in Zurich. A phenomenal account of suffering!” tagesanzeiger.ch
“The evening, during which major themes are discussed, begins quietly and on a small scale. It is about the great distress suffered by the victims of war; the great, unnamed atrocities to which they have been subjected. Karin Henkel has staged an intimate play about female sacrifice and self-victimisation; it is an anti-war sensation, freely adapted from Euripides.” NZZ
“It is an almost three-hour, angry cry of pain about ‘the violence that was; and that still is.’ This is how Hecuba, queen of the fallen city of Troy, laments her fate. She must now follow Odysseus as a slave – yet remains the queen of the evening in the guise of actress Lena Schwarz, even though the other ten performers also frequently take the audience’s breath away.” tagesanzeiger.ch
