Trojan Women: A Love Story

This re-telling of the classic story by Euripides explores the lingering pains of war in a world stratified by gender.

The story is told in two parts. The first, set immediately after the Trojan War, centers around the women of Troy as they are confronted by the men of Greece and stripped of any agency and power over their lives that they once held. Some are taken as slaves; others killed. Attempts by Queen Hecuba to secure some semblance of dignity for her family are met with sheer, uncompromising disempowerment. Finding strength to fight in this post-war society results in the women creating the same forms of oppression they have been subjected to all their lives.

The second piece of the story takes place in Carthage, a world created and built by women, who refused to be defeated by the effects of war. This society, led by Queen Dido, strives to rid their community of patriarchal oppression. This society is loving, beautiful, filled with music, and peaceful. However, over time we learn that the oppressive cycles the city of Carthage vowed to keep out are not so simply broken.

Trigger warnings: violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault