RSC Friends

Photograph by Helen Maybanks.

The play opens with a scene reminiscent of Mad Max as the Homeric heroes on motorbikes roar onto the stage through a cloud of dry ice. The visual drama is matched by Evelyn Glennie’s percussive score which mimics the din of battle. ( Some of the audience jumped out of their seats at this point!)

On closer inspection our heroes are looking less impressive. Marooned on the plains that surround Troy their seven year war has ground down to an inglorious stalemate. Absorbed by their own celebrity status they sulk, argue, and boast.

Meanwhile, the eponymous lovers Troilus and Cressida’s find their nascent relationship is being constantly interrupted by Cressida’s well meaning uncle Pandarus. More threatening still Cressida finds herself subject to a prisoner exchange scheme which her lover fulminates against impotently before abandoning himself to a jealous rage.

Is it a comedy, a history or a tragedy? I would say a darkly comic satire on war and heroism. We can see this in the final scenes of the play when Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior of the Trojan War, organises a dishonourable ambush and shamefully murders his rival Hector before disappearing from the stage.

A complex and fascinating play with powerful and evocative music, an intriguing and versatile stage. Well worth getting tickets to see this rarely played production.