Witnessing, Weeping and Outrage: Modern Contexts and Ancient Woes in Euripides' The Trojan Women at the State Theatre Company of South Australia, November 2004

Abstract

On the night of 17 November 2004, at the close of a performance of the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s The Trojan Women, just as the audience was beginning to shift from its seats, a woman’s voice called loudly from the lower balcony on stage right of the auditorium, 'And this is what’s happening in Falugia today.' The woman moved from her seat to the front corner of the lower balcony, from where she gesticulated in the direction of the stage and repeated, 'This is what is happening in Falugia, today. We should be ashamed.' Many of the audience were still seated, but most of those who were standing or walking towards the exits stopped and turned in her direction. From several different points within the auditorium came concurring cries of 'Shame! Shame!' A man’s voice from the upper balcony made loudly disparaging remarks about the Australian Federal Government. The woman called out again 'It’s our troops, in Iraq, now, killing women and children.' More cries of 'Shame!' And then some of the people standing began to applaud the woman. Other voices joined in from several different places within the auditorium - overlapping - too many to decipher all of them clearly - making comments about our collective responsibility as electors of the current government; as citizens of a country that had sent its troops to an 'illegal war'; that we must not passively allow it to continue…Shouts of, 'Here, here'. More shouts of 'Shame!' More scattered applause. Then it was over, and people continued to make their way out of the auditorium (personal recollection). When I talked to co-writer and director Rosalba Clemente the next day about this response, she said 'Good. Good. I feel now that I’ve done my job.' (Clemente, personal interview: 18.11.04)