Hecuba

by Marina Carr

In the aftermath of the fall of Troy, Agamemnon, the victor, locks horns with Hecuba, the vanquished queen. Both have suffered intimate loss — the sacrifice of a daughter, the murder of a son.In Marina Carr’s bold response to Euripides (‘the most intensely tragic of all poets’ — Aristotle) there’s a demand for further bloodshed. In a brilliant display of ventriloquism the drama weaves threads of inconsolable rage and grief with fate, revenge and inevitable carnage. It explores the shreds of duty and honour as well as the terrible deeds hatred breeds as it touches bravely on Hecuba’s heroic nature and ‘the endless tears of women’.

Genres: Plays

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Marina Carr was brought up in County Offaly. A graduate of University College Dublin, she has written extensively for the theatre. She has taught at Villanova, Princeton, and currently teaches in the School of English, Dublin City University. Awards include the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Macaulay Fellowship, the E. M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Wyndham Campbell Prize. She lives in Dublin with her husband and four children.

Reviews

[Anna Winifred Conway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ate this up in a night or two. An incredibly visceral and stunning play that unfortunately has never been more relevant. The image of Hecuba holding her own husband’s head and feeling the weight of him in her hands sticks with me.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

HECUBA: [...] So you were right after all I say.
CASSANDRA: And why is there no joy in it?

This short piece is without a doubt one of the best plays I have ever read!
The style is quite different from what I'm used to, but it clicked very quickly for me. The dialogue is gold, the emotions it conveys are so raw, visceral, and unflinchingly honest, it reminded me of that Kafka quote about the axe and the frozen sea in us (which is probably a compliment in itself).
Set during the dying moments of the Trojan war, watching the still glowing embers of a kingdom, a people, and a family, it feels like a testament to the absurdity and brutality of war, the folly of man (often literally), and the strange persistence of life in the face of unimaginable loss.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting re-telling of the aftermath of the Trojan war. I wish I could see it staged, so O can see how they perform the interesting way Carr wrote the character's speeches/dia-/monologues which style was completely new to me.

[Daniel Kemp · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars! rly enjoyed reading a different adaptation of hecuba, carr does a good job of reflecting and modernising the stories dialogue reimagining Hecuba as a character

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this retelling was smart and interesting, but why the dialogue was the way it was confused me on this first read.