Overview
If we help, we invite trouble. If we don't, we bring shame. Fifty women
board a boat in North Africa. They flee across the Mediterranean,
leaving everything behind.
They are escaping forced marriage in
their home and seeking asylum in Greece.Written 2,500 years ago, The
Suppliant Women is one of the world's oldest plays. It's about the
plight of refugees, about moral and human rights, civil war, democracy
and ultimately the triumph of love. It tells a story that echoes down
the ages to find striking and poignant resonance today.Featuring in
performance a chorus of local women, this is part play, part ritual,
part theatrical archaeology.
It explores fundamental questions
of humanity: who are we, where do we belong and, if all goes wrong, who
will take us in?Aeschylus' The Suppliant Women, in a version by David
Greig, premiered at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in October 2016, in a
production by ATC.