I’m told I speak too low so I’m going to
try and speak up and the voice gets
lower so I’m here to speak to you this
evening about that Trojan queen that
Trojan Queen being Hecuba and the fabled
queen of Troy the Phrygian horse woman
all the statues of her the wife of Priam
the mother of 18 children they say if
you believe all the legends some say an
interesting fact that Shakespeare based
King Lear or that Lear is Shakespeare’s
response to Hecuba and or to put it
another way
Lear is the male Hecuba there are many
parallels both inhabit a haunted
universe the gods are absent in both
both had everything both lose everything
one house on the heath one on the shore
their children dead at their feet both
are pushed beyond the limits of what one
might just have justifiably be asked to
endure on what sattell calls this black
earth the Greeks went around calling
everyone except themselves barbarians
but hdf kiddo
the famous scholar on all things Greek
says that the Greeks were the original
barbarians and what they did at Troy was
something more than war it was the
annihilation of an entire civilization
it was genocide there’s something about
Troy in all our imaginations the image
of it as a race and also as the human
race and in a way you could say we all
lost Troy that that Bronze Age pink
walled city has something beautiful and
mysterious about us that we’ve forgotten
that we buried something sacred there if
you believe in the spirit in what Yeats
calls beautiful lofty things then we are
all of us all the poorer without Troy
Euripides
great Greek playwright wrote a play
called Hecuba circa 500 BC now my Hecuba
the cheek of me is a response to Europe
at ease across the centuries and while I
love and admire the plays of Euripides I
feel who did an injustice to Hecuba and
I always thought Hecuba got an extremely
bad press largely thanks to Europe ”tis
rightly or wrongly I never agreed with
the verdict on her
so the Hecuba I wrote is an attempt to
re-examine an in part redeem a great and
tragic Queen history as they say is
written by the winners sometimes I think
myths are too and the fragile Greek
states are 500 BC needed to get certain
myths in stone to bolster their sense of
themselves and validate their savage
conquests it was very easy to trash
Hecuba she was dead
for 700 years she was trojan she was the
enemy and most of all she was a woman no
doubt she was as flawed as the rest of
us but to turn a flaw to a monstrosity
snacks to me of expedience
so my Hecuba is an attempt to show her
in another light how she suffered what
she might have felt and how she may have
reacted so to read you from the first
part and I’m the one cheating tonight
everybody else has her dog off by heart
but it’s one of the joys of being a
player I should get to read you don’t
learn it off by heart so and what you
might need to know just a little
background knowledge on this so Hecuba
obviously is the queen of Troy she’s
married to prime as the king of Troy and
the other person in this scene is
Agamemnon and they speak together
Agamemnon is the Mycenaean King he’s
head of the Greek army
it wasn’t Greece then actually there
were just bands of warring Punk’s
looking for advantages basically what
they were coming to Troy apparently they
were off of open 40 Kings who came to
Troy looking for plunder and booty and
one more vicious than the next so he and
argument
and heckuva will speak other names may
in this scene Cassandra the little
prophetess one of the daughters of King
Priam and Queen Hecuba she foretold it
all and nobody would believe her this is
how she was cursed by Apollo Pollux Anna
the other daughter of Hecuba by the time
the play is over Pollux no will have
been sacrificed on an altar by the
Greeks so the wind can change or not
change or blow or national it’s very
difficult to know what’s meant to be
going on with the Greek wind and then
Polydorus the youngest last living son
of Hecuba and Priam
Helen famous Helen of Troy the face that
launched a thousand ships
apparently Helen was the reason the
Greeks went to war against the Trojans
because Paris had stolen Helen etc etc
some say Helen was never in Troy that
the Greeks made her all that they was
they she was the reason they gave for
invading Troy not much has changed
really they’re still reasons being
invented to invade other countries so it
seems that centuries change epochs
change locations change but human nature
does not change very much the blood lost
in the seems to be as terrifying as ever
I’m your prophet of gloom and doom
tonight here I apologize in advance okay
so this is Hecuba and she’s in the
throne room
Troy has fallen Hecuba so I’m in the
throne room surrounded by the limbs
torsos heads corpses of my sons my women
trying to dress me blood between my toes
my son’s blood six of them seven of them
eight I’ve lost count not that you can
count anyway they’re not complete more
an assortment of legs arms chest
somewhat the armors still on some
stripped hands and a pile whose hands
are they ears missing eyes hanging out
of sockets and then a drama care comes
in screaming holding this bloody bundle
my grandson intact except for his head
smashed off a wall like an eggshell
there through the South Gate she says
they’ve breached the Citadel they’re
here I say put him with the rest put him
beside Hector his father’s mangled
she won’t stop screaming shut up I say
you’ll draw them honest I tell the women
to cover her mouth we have no soldiers
to protect us all dead are still
fighting trying to save their own women
children and I don’t know where prayin
is he went out a while ago when was it
last night yesterday my women are
putting perfume on me perfume I swapped
them away the smell of blood wading in
at the tang of rotting bodies everywhere
bodies that came out of this body and I
wanted vomit but there is nothing in my
stomach they’ve cut off our food
supplies and Casandra standing at the
throne that smirk on her face I told you
so did I not tell you so and I could
kill her right now and Pollux and
they’re looking at me petulant willing
me to turn it all around make it all
right make sense of it and I’m glad at
least my little Polydorus is safe we’ve
sent him to Thrace away from all of this
and then a soldier comes reeling in the
door
prions head in his hands my husband’s
head they’ve beheaded him in the great
sky God’s temple I said where’s the rest
of him what good is a head we can’t bury
his head without the rest of them and
the soldier says I don’t know they’ve
burnt the temple burnt the temple the
whole cities in flames he says and he
puts primes head into my hands I sit on
the throne holding it like a baby his
tongues hanging out his eyes are
terrifying a ferocious death I tried to
close his eyes they’re caked with blood
crossed dust I can’t close them and the
soldiers weeping on his knees holding my
ankles all the men castrated he says not
enough to kill and desecrate them too
and I say the women what about the women
the children the women too they’re
killing the women he says all the old
ones the ugly ones the ones past
childbearing past work and the children
I say Priam’s head is oozing onto my
dress the children he says all the boys
and old girls under 10 why I say though
I know it’s a stupid question not enough
room of the ships he says they’re
rounding them up have them in the cattle
pens and I think this is not war in war
there are rules laws codes this is
genocide they’re wiping us out and then
they’re shouting clashing of swords more
screens and Agamemnon is in the throne
room this is agony No
fabled Queen I say she hears the mockery
in my voice though it’s not complete
mockery I’ve been wanting to get a good
look at her for a while and there she is
perched on her husband’s throne holding
what his head the blood flowing down her
arms and what arms they are long and
powerful what’s that I say she doesn’t
answer just looks at me as if I’m a gold
heart the snug cocked is straight back
3,000 years of breeding in that pose
this is Hecuba game they told me many
things about him this terror of the
Aegean this monster from Mycenae but
they forgot to tell me about the eyes
sapphires transcendental eyes fringed by
lashes any girl would kill for I pretend
I don’t know who he is and you are I say
you know damn well Who I am
he laughs and you may stand Agamemnon
and she says she’ll stand when she feels
like it
so I lift her off the throne now that
wasn’t too difficult was it I say I
can’t resist twirling her though I know
it should show more respect used but
good very good
I was expecting and I would hide with
her belly hanging down to her knees but
she’s all right there’s bed and in her
yet Hecuba god bless you he says as he
twirls meet god bless you but war is
hard and the women he smiles a Cassandra
Cassandra smiles back that I keep
trollop
so you’re the man’s slit his daughter’s
throat to change the wind I say
Agamemnon and the wind changed I tell
her the wind changed
Hecuba and I wonder what sort of wife he
must have this barbarian who calls
himself King Agamemnon and she’s looking
me up and down she has an eye on her 18
children I’m told I wonder if they’re
all primes
I wouldn’t mind making a son with her
only way to start a woman like that out
isn’t bad take the heart in Sheen offer
the arrogance even when she’s skidding
in blood stepping over corpses the lip
curling this is my husband hath
husband’s head she says brandishing it
happening you didn’t even have the
decency to give me back his body
Hecuba these are the remains of my sons
I say pointing to the dong heap of lame
heads hearts next next I loved and
kissed I have to bury them I say
Agamemnon safe my men will take care of
it
I see the corpse of an infant who’s that
I say hecuba’s command Ria’s Hector’s
babe
Agamemnon I thought his name was a Stein
executor no scheme andreas why do you
want to know Agamemnon I wonder then
that Hector have two songs these Trojans
soul I can’t have any of them alive
where’s the boy I say what boy she says
do you know what boy I say Polydorus
your boy your last born heckuva I don’t
know
Agamemnon you know Hecuba he’s nine he’s
a child
Agamemnon children grow up fast last
thing I want is to Trojan sails on the
wide Aegean your boy at the head of
activity he’s no threat to you where is
he he Said’s can see the anger rising in
him the man of sudden rages can’t be
thwarted I must be careful prime sent
him away for safekeeping six months ago
I say I don’t know where as stabbed goes
through me Polydorus
they’re gonna take you to Agamemnon you
know well where he is and the longer
this business goes on the worse it’ll be
for you and she starts crying please she
whispers please the face crumpling I’ve
seen that look before on my wife’s face
when they made me drag if you janilla
from her arms but I can’t let the boy
live this is war these things have to be
done don’t you have children she says I
have lots of children the daughters are
stoners can see the mother and then what
she must have been in her prime not that
I mind the old hands have a weakness for
them all said board the nostrils of
girls these long years they know nothing
understand nothing but a look and this
one’s I mean topper I gave plenty to see
that look hast I waited challenged then
transported once I’d get to the animal
in her the young ones won’t reveal that
I think it’s all flowers and moonlight
and concealing think they have all of
time to declare themselves with this one
and star-like might take a while to get
her done and willing but by god when you
did heck given my husband’s body where
is it Agamemnon I tell her there’s no
time she has to get on the ships but
she’s not listening she’s losing it
we’re evacuating Troy burning it to the
ground this
of liars and rapists she’s listening now
turns on me blood rising hands shaking
with rage goes into a real spittle on
her lips as she gives bent you came as
guests she hisses Hecuba you came as
guests rolling in here stinking of gold
a mackerel and you came with malice
in your hearts you saw our beautiful
city our valleys our fields green and
giving you had never seen such abundance
you wanted it you must have it you came
to plunder and destroy Agamemnon and she
rattles on about there paved streets
their temples there are marble libraries
their holy job priests their palaces of
turquoise and pink gold I say where’s
heaven we can’t find her HECO Helen
Helen Helen was never here and where you
know Agamemnon you have to admire her
the brazen stance I say you stand here
everything lost and still you lie who is
this Helen she says and if she could get
her hands on her she tear her asunder to
enter a man’s house I’d say to bed his
wife to kidnap her to kill her to do
away with the evidence we want Helen
back we have our dead to bury to Hecuba
Helen does not exist you made her up
you needed a reason to take it all there
is no heaven there never was a Helen
yeah yeah yeah he says that’s your
version cassandra snorts plays with our
bangles stares at him we need a treaty I
say I must calm down save what I can we
need to hammer out a treaty Agamemnon
now you want to treaty the little
prophetess is wearing the bracelet I
sent her you’re far too young the other
girl glares oh I know she’s no innocent
gave many happy hours with the bold
achenes way past time for treaties my
good lady I tell the soldiers to round
them up get them on the ships I’m going
nowhere she says till I bury these she
waves her hands
obviously the place is an abattoir thank
you very much [Applause]