Trojan Women electrifies

IN 1991, director Ong Keng Sen sent hundreds of audience members to a disused rock quarry in Bukit Timah. There, amid a large bonfire and several torches, a group of distinguished actors performed the 2,400-year-old Greek tragedy Trojan Women, against dark imposing cliffs.

The story centres on the women of Troy who are forced into slavery after their men lose a lengthy war to the Greeks. Dressed in Indian-accented costumes, the women were led by the magnificent raspy-voice Nora Samosir who played proud Hecuba, screaming and shaking her fists at the capricious kathakali-dancing Gods.

Fast forward to the recently-concluded Singapore International Festival of Arts, the fourth and last edition to be headed by Ong: here at the Victoria Theatre, he is once again staging Trojan Women. And though this new version takes place in the sleek cocoon of a theatre with perfect acoustics, the women are still screaming at the top of their voices, and Hecuba is played by yet another raspy-voiced actress. But the similarities end here.