19:00, Tue 13th – Sat 17th March 2012 at Pembroke New Cellars
Lent Week 8

The French classical tragedy par excellence: passion, jealousy, revenge, politics and gallantry ending in bloodshed.

Oreste loves Hermione who loves Pyrrhus who loves Andromaque, who is torn between her fidelity to her late husband Hector, killed by Pyrrhus’ father, and her attempt to save their son. Disappointed love turns into hatred as the frantic quadrangle dissolves. Each of the protagonists either kill, or die; the survivor descends into madness.

Racine’s Andromaque, as transcendent as Shakespeare’s tragedies, blooms some of the most beautiful verses ever heard on stage. As every translation would betray this intimate union of poetry and drama, the text will be performed in French; but the bodies carried away by violence and desire will speak a language everybody can understand.