Trojan Barbie

Troy Story

Trojan Barbie

by Christine Evans

Questors Productions at the Questors Studio, Ealing, until 29^th March

Review by Andrew Lawston

The women of Troy lament their fallen city and slaughtered families, while a doll-mender prepares to embark on a cultural tour for singles, reasoning that “people are nicer on holiday”.

Past and present collide in Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans. Cassandra tells us this is nothing unusual, in typically colourful language, but as usual no one listens to her. Against the black walls of the Questors Studio, history repeats itself, sometimes as tragedy, sometimes as farce, and often both together as Emily Hawley’s thoroughly modern Polly X is dragged away to be sacrificed by two predatory occupying soldiers Jorge (Jacob Dalton) and Max (Herman Svartling Stolpe), but ends up drinking beer with them in an abandoned zoo.

Richard Gallagher directs this fascinating play at blistering pace in a lean ninety minutes, with actors constantly changing roles, and sometimes costumes, throughout the show. Sound effects are played sparingly and at high volume to shock the audience, whether they’re growling tigers, gunfire, or explosions. While the text is often poetic, this production is aiming to make the greatest possible impact on its audience.

Sarah Andrews dresses the cast in a blend of modern military uniforms, period costumes, and contemporary clothes that adds to the unsettling mix of eras.

As Hecuba laments her latest loss in a powerful performance by Nate Clarke, Esme and Clea alternate between dry quips and a, well, Greek chorus. Hyssop Benson and Isabella Cottrell Kirby make a great double act in this way, and never more so when heckling Hannah Rosamund’s gloriously vampy Helen. Helen’s first entrance, down steep stairs that light up as she descends, is pitched perfectly.

Meanwhile Talthybius (Herman Svartling Stople again, in an almost unrecognisable contrast to his GI role), described consistently as a vulture-like man, limps on stage at regular intervals to deliver increasingly terrible news to Hecuba and to Lily Baker’s despairing Andromache.

Cassandra frequently bursts on to the stage, generally singing “Marry the Man Today”, and Filipa Maia plays her as a wild force of nature, revelling in the cursed prophetess’s outrageous declarations.

Meanwhile Lotte, portrayed as well-meaning and charming by Mia Biagio, finds her cultural tour of the ruins of Troy taking an unexpected turn as she is dragged into the camp with the Trojan women. As she constantly tries to contact the British Embassy, and helps to reconcile Helen with Menelaus, she injects some humour into a play which grows ever darker.

The military uniforms and references to the desert draw an unavoidable comparison between the Trojan War and more modern conflicts. Angus Duke evokes the Iraq War in particular with a tremendous swaggering performance as a monstrous US soldier with a tendency for making unfortunate Freudian slips. He periodically addresses the audience from behind mirrored shades, reflecting the rows of spectators back at themselves, before despairing at the apparent lack of English-speakers in the audience.

Trojan Barbie is an intense experience, and a passable knowledge of The Trojan Women by Euripides and the Trojan War in general is recommended (the programme wisely features a summary of the Fall of Troy). This ambitious production pulls no punches and keeps the audience constantly guessing. It veers between broad comedy, intense tragedy, and by muddling antiquity and modernity, it makes serious points about the fate of women in war-zones throughout history. This a challenging but ultimately highly rewarding play.

Andrew Lawston, March 2025

Photography by Paula Robinson