The ensemble of directors, producers, technical crew and cast have gone through painstaking trouble to ensure that the audience hears these issues as they are addressed through the action of the play. Attempting to confront these weighty historical and socially important issues may seem risky, especially when they are to be carried by an ancient work that reflects the gender biases of its time. Yet this production is overwhelmingly successful. Women of Troy is an intense production. It forces you to think about these characters, the situation they are in, their utter tragedy.
Emotions run at maximum output at every moment.
The cast is headed by visiting performer and Oberlin College alum, Alyssa Bongiorno, OC'90. Bongiorno recently graduated from the Julliard School, in the spring of 1995, where she spent four years in training. As Hecuba, the former Queen of Troy, Bongiorno provides Women of Troy with central focus from which the rest of the play emanates. Like the staff with which Hecuba holds herself upright, Bongiorno is critical in supporting the action of the play at all times. Her speeches are long and frequent, and very well delivered, using body language and raw physicality to give the grief of this fallen leader an immense presence that seems to fill the stage, even when she is not speaking.