The tragedy “Ekavi” by Euripides, written in 427 BC, unfolds in the aftermath of the Trojan War in the Achaean camp on the coast of Thrace. The play centers on the heartbroken queen of the fallen city of Troy and widow of King Priam. Her pain is twofold, marked by the loss of her children and the betrayal she faces.
In the first part of the play, Hecabe is tormented by the impending sacrifice of her youngest daughter, Polyxene. The ghost of Achilles has appeared, demanding Polyxene’s life as an offering to secure a fair wind for the homeward voyage for the Greek fleet. Despite Hecabe’s desperate pleas, the Greeks, led by Odysseus, decide to fulfill this demand. Polyxene, displaying noble courage, accepts her fate and brutally sacrifices herself at Achilles’ tomb.
The tragedy deepens in the second part, when Hecabe learns of the treacherous murder of her son, Polydorus. Polydorus had been sent to the court of Polymestor, king of Thrace, for safekeeping during the war, along with a treasure. However, Polymystor, driven by greed, killed Polydorus and seized the treasure. Hekave, overcome with grief and rage, devises a cunning plan of revenge. She lures Polymystor and his sons to her tent under the guise of revealing hidden treasures. There, with the help of the Trojan women, he takes a brutal and just revenge.
The play concludes with the arrival of Agamemnon, who must arbitrate the dispute between Hecabe and Polymestor. Despite Polymestor’s claims of justice, Agamemnon takes Hekave’s side, recognizing her deep suffering and the justice of her revenge. The tragedy of “Ekavi” powerfully explores the themes of loss, revenge and the painful consequences of war, highlighting the resilience and despair of a once-royal mother struggling with her broken world.
The artistic director of the Avignon Festival, the Portuguese Thiago Rodríguez, staged with the Comédie-Française for the first time at the Festival and then in Epidaurus, the performance “Hecuba, not Hecuba”, which is based on Euripides’ “Hecuba” but focuses in the double ordeal of an actress who plays her on stage while at the same time running to the courts denouncing the abuse of her autistic child by the institution that cared for him.
The creator notes “Hekabe is one of the great tragic heroines who speak of justice and motherhood, so the fact that these two stories – of Nadia and Hekabe, whom she plays – are intertwined is synonymous with how theater can influence , even to radically change our lives.
In the interpretation of Hekabi, Nadia is affected by her own personal drama, as she seeks to publicize the case of abuse of her child, taking legal action against the institution, which tries to cover it up. Accordingly, Nadia in real life is inspired by the attitude of the tragic heroine to be encouraged and continue her struggle. Through this work I want to talk about justice on the one hand, on how literature and theater can have a catalytic effect on us on the other hand, and even motivate us to demand justice.”
The play focuses on the rehearsals of an actress preparing for the role of Euripides’ Hecabe. Hekabi, the queen of Troy, is a character who has suffered one of the cruelest fates in Greek mythology. With the fall of Troy, Hecabe loses everything she holds dear: her husband King Priam, her throne, her freedom and, most agonizingly, almost all her children. Her story is a story of immense pain, but also a story of relentless pursuit of justice. The mythical Hekabi seeks revenge against those who have wronged her, embodying the relentless struggle of a woman driven by grief and rage.
The approach of Thiago Rodríguez who presented “Hecuba, not Hecuba” in Epidaurus after its premiere at the Avignon Festival, is innovative and painful. In this play, created by Thiago Rodriguez in his first collaboration with the Comédie Française troupe, the timeless myth of Hecabe’s suffering is contrasted with the real-life struggles of an actress whose own story reflects the sadness and quest for justice experienced by Priam’s widow. The myth of the tragedy, however, meets heartbreakingly the intimate reality of the actress, mother of a teenager on the autism spectrum, who has been abused by the staff of the institution where she has trusted him. As those in charge try to cover up the case, he decides to release it to the press and take legal action to punish the culprits. In the rehearsals for the performance, the judicial investigation is ambiguously interjected. In a peculiar, austere, liminal setting, these two worlds come into conflict in a torturous and disturbing mix of the mythical and the real, of theater and justice.
By juxtaposing the personal story of the actress Nadia alongside the story of Hekabe, she draws strong parallels between the two women. Both are mothers who “lost” their children to acts of violence and betrayal. Both are forms of authority and respect that find themselves stripped of their power and forced to confront systems of oppression and injustice. Through this dual narrative, Rodríguez emphasizes the timeless nature of certain human experiences, suggesting that themes of grief, loss, and the pursuit of justice are as relevant today as they were in ancient Greece and for as long as man has existed.
The play’s setting plays a decisive role in blurring the lines between myth and reality. The rehearsals, which are an integral part of the narrative, are depicted in a liminal space where the boundaries between the actress’s life and her role as Hekabe are constantly shifting. This setting allows for a fluid movement between past and present, myth and reality, theater and life. Within this space the forensic investigation invades the performance, creating moments of ambiguity and tension.
Rodriguez’s treatment of the material respects the original tragedy while daring to innovate. It honors Euripides’ exploration of human suffering and the search for justice, while infusing the narrative with a contemporary perspective. The result is a work that is both timeless and timely, a powerfully anguished commentary on the constant human struggle against injustice and the ceaseless search for truth.
The actors have started rehearsing, although in 15 days they have a premiere, they are still in the initial stage of reading the roles. Nadia is not so much anxious about the interpretation of her role, anxious about her own fate and about the abuse of her autistic child, little Otis. Nadia digs into the tragedy of Hekabe to find the weapons, the ways and the methods to find justice for all that her son suffered. The lighting intersects the show and it is they who lead us sometimes to one situation and sometimes to another. Sometimes in the investigations into the situation that exists in the state institution for autistic children and sometimes in the Achaean camp.
Time and place are defined by a simple but powerful beam of light. And in this gloomy situation, humor dominates in a beautifully arbitrary way. What has just been said is racist or not, political correctness allows us to talk about barbarians or cover it up, from left or right will Agamemnon enter the stage, are fifteen days enough for the performance or should the troupe be anxious? The white and intense lights will shine through the night to highlight reason, pain, envy but above all space and time. The autistic child whispers words, with loudspeaker Nadia his mother, Hekabi whispers words and around the orchestra and their opposite play – not play, kiss – not kiss, love – not love, caress – not caress. While all words have their opposites, even Hekabi- no Hekabi, some words don’t. What is the negation in the chocolate that Otis so longs for is not there – no chocolate, there is only affirmation here and no negation.
The show also reveals the bitch under the black veil in the center of the orchestra, a reference to the cartoon that the little autistic boy loves, but mainly a reference to the woman mother Hekavi, who killed her child. The wife, actress, mother, Nadia who was abused by her boyfriend. So both of them are transformed into dogs, crippled dogs, after they have taken away or abused their child and demand justice in any way. Dogs, then, the two women mothers until justice. Until the culprit is blinded and the faceless, Kafkaesque barbaric and inhumane state that grinds people, women, children is punished, until they find their puppy again until crippled justice takes its place.
Excellent performance by Elsa Lepoivre as Hecabe and Nadia heartbreaking mother who uses her pain as a spear with which to blind the traitor Polymystor makes pain as a spear with which she struggles to pierce the thick-skinned, amoral, nightmarish and irresponsible state that crushes sensitive souls , crushes disabled children because he did not know, he did not calculate correctly, because no one ever takes responsibility for anything. Also excellent is Loïc Corbery, who plays the Polymaster and the dignified of irresponsibility and indifference.
Thiago Rodríguez’s Hecabe-inspired text while beautifully spilling into Euripides’ tragedy and Nadia desperate for justice meets in an unexpected but harmonious way with the overworked queen at one point and then they start to lose the author’s findings their initial momentum, towards the end we have little unexpected and gratuitous repetitions. Only great performances keep our interest at a high level from one point to the next.
We should note that an excellent job has been done on the lighting and the sound, to such an extent that they act as co-stars of the show. The lighting works really beautifully, highlighting the events by changing scenes from Hecabe’s drama, to Comédie Française rehearsals and troupe rehearsals, to the court where Nadia tries to speak and find her right and back again .
The musical background which was very interesting underlined in a functional way its changes and all that it should as my hip hopper son pointed out to me. At the same time, we also noticed something else, regarding the sound part, the sound bodies were placed in such a way that the sounds and music reached our ears in an eerie way. The music seemed to fall from the sky or emerge from behind the forest or under the stones.
In conclusion, Comédie Française’s performance and Thiago Rodriguez’s play “Hecuba, not Hecuba” was a wonderful show, inspired both in its conception and in its execution, which interestingly shows how these great works can be used for to inspire and renew the interest of contributors and audience.
In the performance “Hecuba, not Hecuba” Hecuba’s pain over the loss of her son is great and Nadia’s pain over the abuse of her autistic child knows no bounds. Most mothers are angels and guardians by instinct and necessity. To the world a woman when she gives birth simply becomes a mother. But for her child, it is the whole world. Our heroines know this, so they transform into invincible dogs who demand justice. This is what Thiago Rodriguez’s fruitful approach to the hollow of the Argolic theater whispered to us.
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