The final production of the Brandeis Theater Company's 2008 to 2009 season, Hecuba, adapted by Prof. Eirene Visvardi (CLAS) and Eric Hill (THA) and directed by Hill, closes the year on a remarkably dark and depressing note. For some, theater is an escape from reality, a cloistered space within which you can briefly explore a world not your own; it is said that Marie Antoinette would enjoy afternoons of "playing peasant" in a cottage built especially for her. Like the late queen of France, some theatergoers find joy in a contrived fantasy without noticing its status as an imposter of reality through the blissfulness of their detached naiveté. For many of us, however, true theater must be an interrogation of the world and of the inhumanity of those who would call themselves human. It must respond to injustice and breached ethics, though doing so may be dark and depressing rather than carefree and uplifting.

In his director's note, Hill recounts his seemingly ill-timed productions of Greek tragedy. His adaptations of Helen, Orestes and Iphigenia at Taurus premiered during the first Gulf War and his production of The Trojan Women "came brutally hard on the heels of 9/11." However, he admits that he can "only rue the timing up to a point simply because I revel in the resonances that have been built into doing any of Euripides' plays." In line with that sentiment, The Trojan Women "didn't shy away from its coincidental scheduling." Though 2,433 years old this year, Hecuba too is still as salient as ever to Western civilization and to America in particular, as its plot includes multiple imperialistic overseas wars.

Set in Thrace (near Troy in Asia Minor) in the immediate aftermath of Troy's destruction, Euripides' Hecuba tells the tale of the title character's (Prof. Elizabeth Terry [THA]) tragic turn of fate from a queen blessed with many children to a dejected and childless slave of the victors of an arduous war. Sculpted in the most beautiful and brilliant ancient Greek verse, it is on the surface a funeral dirge for a woman locked in a living tomb. However, the true tragedy of the drama lies in war's ability to thrust its "winners" and "losers" into a state of desperation and greed, blinding them to the suffering of those with whom they share sacred bonds.

The play's seamless choreography by Lorry May, the founding director of the Sokolow Dance Foundation, featured a combination of staid yet fluid motions, sharp, staccato full-body movements and rapid-and unfortunately somewhat perplexing-hand motions reminiscent of BTC chair and professional choreographer Susan Dibble's (THA) signature effects, which add a physical dimension to the emotional intensity of the drama. The clear and beautiful solo vocal segments by chorus singer McCaela Donovan (GRAD), carefully set at key points in the play, kept the story moving while providing time for the audience to breathe and recover from the almost ceaseless intensity of the action.

So moving was the story and so powerfully was it conveyed by the actors that problems that normally would have dampened my enjoyment of the play (i.e., awkward and artificial diction added by the adaptors of the drama, multiple line-stumblings by the chorus and notably the title character herself, and one chorus member whose accent and manner of speaking made it nearly impossible to understand her), became temporary annoyances that were quickly forgotten. Her tendency to stumble over lines notwithstanding, Terry's performance was both riveting and emotionally exhausting. Perhaps the most memorable and awe-inspiring performance of the night, however, was that of Equiano Mosieri (GRAD) as Polymestor, the killer of Hecuba's youngest son Polydorus. Though still a first-year MFA student, his performance equaled, maybe even surpassed Terry's.

Overall, Hecuba was a resounding success whose haunting beauty will hold us over until BTC's resumption in the fall. While some would have preferred a more uplifting end to the company's season-especially in such a stressful time within and outside of the University-I would echo Hill in my dissent. As long as we "keep making the same mistakes as we move through the course of Western civilization," Euripides' Hecuba and Greek tragedy in general will continue to serve a vital role in our aesthetic and social lives.