Preview: WUDS presents ‘Troilus and Cressida’

Unless you’re a seasoned Shakespeare scholar you may not have heard of Troilus and Cressida. If you have you’ll probably know it as one of his more difficult plays and one that is not often produced. Finally   someone has taken on the challenge and is bringing the play, set around the Trojan War, to the Arts Centre Studio in Week 3. Director Rozzy Knox decided very early on that she wanted to cut the play to just 90 minutes, with the help of dramaturg Anna Himali Howard, meaning it would be fast-paced, playful and action-packed throughout.

Sitting in on a rehearsal, it was interesting to see how inventive the set design was. Instead of set pieces and props the main focus is chalk drawings on the floor, which the cast themselves draw in the opening sequence of the play. The traverse staging splits the studio into two distinct camps: Team Greek versus Team Trojan. Being based around a war,  of course stage fighting is involved, so the actors  have been participating in movement workshops. “There are a lot of fights in quick succession, but they don’t come in until later on,” says Greg Layhe, who plays Troilus. We had to experiment without using weapons – normally it would be swords, but we have to make our bodies the weapons. It involves a lot of physical theatre.”

Noteworthy is the play’s gender casting: there are more female warriors than males and the famous Achilles, known to most of us as Brad Pitt in the movie Troy, is played by a woman. Ella McLeod, who is playing Achilles, explains “a lot of it is actually psychological warfare for my character, using intimidation and mental strength. I try to actually use my femininity and the power that comes with that within the role.” There is a definite different dynamic between Achilles and Hector than if Achilles were being played by a man. “We get to explore codes of chivalry and honour; traditionally, a guy would not be able to fight a girl, so we have to get around that by using other methods of displaying their conflict. We obviously didn’t want to make an audience uncomfortable watching a woman fighting a man.” And of course, “there is a lot of sass involved, definitely!”

But it’s not all about fighting. Greg adds that it’s interesting that Troilus and Cressida are the title of the play when they’re not actually in a lot of it. “Their romantic story-line is important though, because it shows the conflict between Troilus’s personal interests versus his wider loyalty to his country. There are two stories going on at once and the two come into conflict when Cressida is traded over to the Greeks, so it’s more incentive for Troilus to hate his enemies. The romance storyline helps Troilus to become a man, fighting for his country, when he starts off as a lovesick teenager.” As for Cressida herself, who is taken away from her lover and handed over to the Greeks, “it’s a question of survival” explains Cherry Mawby who plays her. She also admits that it was initially difficult to work out how an audience could emphasise with Cressida as she faces some questionable choices, yet she is certain that eventually they will understand that she simply does what she has to do.

One other thing that struck me was the choice of costume; there is no armor, no camouflage. Instead, the warriors are in contemporary sportswear. As Alex  Webster, costume designer, explains, this concept came from Rozzy saying she wanted to emphasise how the play is about people involved in a war, but not necessarily a play about the war itself. “I took inspiration from an all-female Shakespeare production which was set in a women’s prison, as well as Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s been a really fun show to costume as it’s not set in a specific time so we had free reign to think about what would work.”

Despite the play’s serious themes, there are definitely lots of laughs, with some scenes almost turning the play into a musical as contemporary music is used to add to this timeless feeling. One scene involves an intense warrior stomp to a soundtrack of The XX, another will have the audience in hysterics as the warriors wiggle around the stage, conga-style. Whatever preconceptions you have about Shakespeare, it’s time to leave them at the door!

The show runs from Thursday 7th May until Saturday 9th May, including a Saturday matinee. Tickets are available from the Arts Centre box office and online at http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/2015/wuds-troilus-and-cressida.