Hecuba

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Opened 7 April 2005, closed 7 May 2005 at the Albery Theatre in London (now the Noel Coward Theatre)

What happens to human beings when they lose all hope?

The Royal Shakespeare Company present new production of Euripides' Hecuba written by Tony Harrison and directed by Laurence Boswell.

The first great war between the east and the west is over. Troy has fallen and the victorious Greek coalition forces are on their way home. Hecuba, once queen of Troy, now a prisoner of war, is being transported back to Athens with other war booty, the women of Troy. Having lost her home, her husband and most of her children, what does this proud and brave woman do when she is asked by her captors to give up her daughter's life having discovered on the same day that her only surviving son has been murdered?

One of the most powerful and intense dramas ever written, a play which celebrates the courage and bravery of Hecuba and the women of Troy as they struggle to survive, a play which asks important questions about how the victors of war deal with the vanquished, a play about what happens to human beings when they lose all hope?

The cast features Vanessa Redgrave in the title role.