Women of Troy, The Scoop **

It is hard to have an objective view on a production. Multiple elements like your mood at the time, the seat your sitting and the price of a ticket impact your view on a show. Therefore, I find it difficult to be critical of The Scoop as their setup is very noble and ambitious. However, I have to say that Women of Troy was plain boring. Lisa Kuma has adapted Euripides' Trojan War plays in a way that feels long-winded and dull. The first half is spent with the debate over the death of Iphigenia between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra that has no buzz or tension to it. When you feel apathetic at the ultimate death, you know these actors have not done their job properly. The second half picks up some pace and captures the idea of the brutality of humanity yet never feels quite right. There are wobbly links as far as the acting goes but Ursula Mohan, Hannah Kerin and Terence Frisch are three notably good performances. The rest range in performances from middling to bad. Unfortunately, it comes at an inconvenient time when many of these Greeks are being portrayed at other theatres with larger budgets, with shows like Oresteia at the Almeida showing the same events with such skill and brilliance. Whilst the motive of this enterprise is fantastic, the quality needs to be better so that people aren't alienated from theatre.