Focusing on Euripides’ Trojan Women, we investigate distinctive cases from its rich performance history —mainly in Greece and Cyprus during the period 1965–2010— which go beyond essentialist frameworks of reception to activate a contemporaneous cultural presence of the play and re-imagine its grim landscapes of war and refugeehood. In the early post-war period in Greece, revivalist theatrical conventions and fixed representational codes were utilized disregarding global trends of updating anti-war themes by using contemporary experiential material. Since the early 1970s, and especially after the junta period, the ancient warscapes of Troy have been reinterpreted more freely through ecumenical and/or culture-specific contemporary references to modern wars. As varied experiences of warfare were transcribed on stage through adaptation strategies, as well as directorial, and in particular scenographic formulations, greater visibility and impact of the play’s themes of war devastation and refugeehood has been achieved. Performances of Trojan Women from the 1990s onwards frequently display intentions of cultural and political commentary —or even intervention— providing more diverse stage versions with contemporary local and/or global references. The main areas for this contextualization of the real in contemporary Greek theatre were the Balkan region and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia Minor and Cyprus, next to other international war zones and conflicts.
