Uneven ‘Trojan Women’ Retains a Valid Message

“The Trojan Women,” at its best, is a tough grind for cast and audience. And the Old Globe’s new version, at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, is not “Trojan Women” at its best.

Euripides’ 2,400-year-old war protest, believed written to censure his native Greece’s aggression on neighboring islands, is an almost-unrelieved litany of misery and atrocity after the Greek conquest of Troy. The city’s women, facing death or dismal futures as slaves or concubines, recount their woeful tales and condemn the men who waged a decade-long war because the beautiful Helen deserted her husband, Menelaus.

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The most powerful speeches come from Hecuba, queen of Troy and mother of slain Trojan hero Hector; Andromache, Hector’s widow; and Cassandra, gifted prophet driven mad by her inability to get anyone to heed her warnings.

“Trojan Women” was frequently staged by opponents of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and director Seret Scott likewise seeks to emphasize the story’s relevance to today’s world. She blends a fresh adaptation by UC San Diego classical scholar Marianne McDonald into a mixture of costumes, scenery and weaponry. The result, however, more often clashes than meshes.

McDonald’s script does clarify and sharpen the story by such methods as minimizing references to Greek gods and goddesses. But the amalgam of old and new--mentions of oracles one moment, beer and TV the next--adds to the overall dissonance. And for every novel line like “Hope is a whore,” there’s something obvious like “How can a person own another human?”

Inconsistency, too, plagues the acting. Randy Danson, in the pivotal role of Hecuba, sometimes inserted pauses in odd places, detracting from her expressions of suffering. Rayme Cornell as Cassandra, Jennifer Regan as Andromache and Rosina Reynolds, leader of the chorus, managed some involving moments, but the rest of the women never attained credibility. Of the men, Michael James Reed drew sympathy as a repentant soldier.

Scenic Designer Ralph Funicello’s set certainly illustrates the devastation of war, looking like a bombed-out two-level junkyard overseen by a huge, battered head of Zeus, staring blankly and obliquely at the devastation.

Peter Maradudin’s lighting is properly mournful, with flashes of fire. Ann Mould-Ward’s costumes enhance the theme of timelessness, with the soldiers in modern battle camouflage and the victims in garb representing those of ancient Troy as well as Kosovo, Chechnya and Southeast Asia. Chris R. Walker provides a valuable variety of underscoring sounds, notably with electronically enhanced voices.

It just may be that television and the Internet, with their immediacy, intimacy and real-life imagery, have permanently limited the ability of “Trojan Women” to involve audiences. Still, the play’s message about war’s horrors unfortunately remains all too applicable.

* “The Trojan Women,” Old Globe, Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego. Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 14. $23-$42. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 95 minutes. No intermission.