Stage: Women Of Troy

Brighton and Hove, and for that matter most of East and West Sussex, is well served when it comes to professional theatre – from Chichester through Worthing to Eastbourne and Hastings in the east and north to Crawley, we are treated to a wide range of shows of all kinds, from popular commercial theatre, to serious drama and classics, not to mention comedy one nighters and pop and classical events.
Here in the city though this is added to by a thriving fringe theatre scene ranging from professional to what might once might have been called amateur. In my experience there is little need to use the word amateur with its less than professional connotations as on the whole the standards are very high. This must in part be due to the number of excellent theatre practitioners that have always chosen to make Brighton their home, but also to a discerning audience who would perhaps never settle for anything less.

One such venue is the New Venture Theatre, an organisation undaunted by tackling some of the most difficult of works of both modern and classical repertoire and always seeming to pull their productionss off to critical acclaim.
Their next production is Women of Troy.
In Troy, the war is over and the city is burning. The Gods shift their allegiances. The city’s once rich and powerful women have been herded together to await their fates at the hands of the victorious Greeks. Who can steer that fate?
Hecuba, once queen, has lost everything.
Her only remaining child – Cassandra – is running through the city with burning torches, a crazed prophetess.
Helen, the catalyst, awaits judgement from the husband she left, friendless in both camps.

The luckless Talthybius, Greek messenger, must close his heart to the women whose destiny he comes to tell, even when the orders he bring sicken him.
Director Ella Turk-Thompson says: “Women of Troy is something I have approached with equal joy and trepidation. There are certain challenges: A huge cast, many emotionally and verbally testing roles, seamlessly incorporated song and dance and an awful lot of fire in the stage directions. I am proud to be continuing such an ancient tradition of theatre in such a beautiful space. I am thrilled to be working with such a great and expansive cast and crew and looking forward to the challenge of bringing all the elements together in rehearsal.”

Friday 26 February 2016 – Saturday 05 March 2016, 7.45pm (No Sunday/Monday eves).
Matinee: Sun 17th at 2.30pm.
Disabled access is limited for the Theatre Upstairs.
Tickets for the show are available at £9 (Final Fri/Sat £10) Tues all tickets £7 and can be purchased online at www.newventure.org.uk For further details phone Box Office Information on 01273 746118