On March 29, The Theatre Arts and Dance hosted a preview of the upcoming performance “WarCircus” in Ives Hall. The play is an adaptation of “The Trojan Women,” in the aftermath of the Trojan war women’s fate is left to the Greek conquerors. Everybody is forced to participate in performing for a circus that has been traveling around for thousands of years to do an anti-war play. The play touched on what it means to be entertained while also asking what it means to be exploited. Trigger warning there are topics of sexual assault and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).    

The director of the play Brent Lindsay mentioned what he thinks is going to surprise people about the performance “The thing that is most interesting to me is the line between comedy and tragedy, and where those two sorts of overlap once and a while.” Lindsay went on to describe how interesting it is to see the audience’s reactions “ If it raises questions in an audience that to me is interesting it is not there to give you answers.”Lindsay continued that the cast had a hand in putting some of the scripts together as well “Almost everyone had a hand in writing some of the scripts, I wanted to make sure that everybody had a voice in writing some of the words and developing their characters.”

Jarrett Galante , an acting major that plays one of the two greek soldiers mentioned that his favorite part of the play is “I liked what Brent, the director did in terms of making it like a circus atmosphere because it allows you to look at these terrible aspects of humanity and see them in a light that is different as opposed to doing a straight drama.” Galante added how the play was different from anything else he had ever done before “The play is a lot different, even the environment it is in with the whole circus atmosphere, it’s got a lot of important  stories to tell and it’s entertaining.”

“I love all the circus aspects of it and how there’s a story being told. We still get to do these really fun circus acts.” Elena O’Kane, a second-year criminology major who plays Cassandra, the truth-teller, talked about what her favorite part of the play is. O’Kane then began to discuss what she believed to be the most interesting part of the play to be “There are so many plot twists, I don’t think anyone’s really gonna know what is going to happen next and people are going to be surprised with how it turns out.”

Alice Tikoibau, a fourth-year sociology major that plays Hecuba, the matriarch mentioned who she would want to switch parts within the show; “Probably Elena with predictions just because every night it is going to be improv and you really never know which way it’s going to go, the role just is so fun and it’s my favorite part.” The play will be performed on April 6,7 and 8 at Ives Hall room 119.