Queens of Syria (the documentary) tells the story of fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan,who came together in Autumn 2013 to create and perform their own version of the Trojan Women, Euripides’ timeless Ancient Greek tragedy about the plight of women in war. Not one of them had ever acted before.
What followed was an extraordinary moment of cross-cultural contact across millennia, in which women born in 20th century Syria found a blazingly vivid mirror of their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, uprooted, enslaved,and bereaved by the Trojan War.
It was a process charged with emotion and fraught with challenges, as long buried issues came to the surface, and at times the project itself hung in the balance.
Yasmin Fedda’s subtly crafted and beautifully shot film explores the difficult choices the women have to make about appearing on stage, and the close relationships they form within the group as they explore with each other their experiences. It shows their bravery and determination that their stories should be told to the world.
The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
In 2013 Refuge Productions in partnership with Oxfam mounted a new production of Euripides’ great anti war tragedy the Trojan Women in Jordan with a cast of Syrian refugee women displaced by the war in Syria. The production was intended both as a psycho-social support measure for the participants, and as an advocacy tool to highlight the plight of Syrian refugees. The women who participated arrived at the workshops in varying states of suffering from depression, feelings of isolation and PTSD. Without claiming that the production cured these, the Syrian psychologist we employed to monitor the workshops and rehearsals confirmed that the process allowed the women to take back a great measure of self confidence and self respect, as well as finding a new support group through sharing each others’ stories and experiences. In 2013 the refugee crisis engulfing the region as a result of the civil war in Syria was very under-reported internationally. We correctly projected that showing this crisis in a different and dramatically surprising way would have a much wider impact in reporting terms, and as such the play was widely covered by regional and international press both in newsprint and on television.
Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country?
is going to the Edinburgh Fringe!
The play has also been nominated for an Offie award.
Where Is Love? Has been nominated for the DOC.London Peoples choice award and is being screened at Cannes International film week! Click here to watch.
"I HAVE
A SCREAM
I WANT THE WORLD TO HEAR...
...BUT I WONDER,
WILL IT BE HEARD?"
PODCAST
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
https://open.spotify.com/show/1piy1cl2w9pabFUW3lqJbr
LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/why-am-i-in-your-country/id1730013397
Refugees and asylum seekers explain to you why they were driven from their own homes and came to live in the UK, through a series of podcast interviews with Charlotte Eagar and William Stirling, creators of the Trojan Women Project.
Episodes 1-3 tell the story of Arwa, a Palestinian Syrian actress, and how she and her beloved golden retriever, Jacko, finally escaped the devastating civil war and made their way to the UK and safety, overcome the odds, including being made homeless, to find love, happiness and stability with Jonathan her fiancé, and their new born baby, Arthur.
Why Am I In Your Country? launched through the Mail on Sunday on 11th February 2024 in You Magazine with an interview with Arwa and Jonathan about finding love in a homeless shelter.
The latest project from the Trojan Women Project, a combined psycho-social support and drama project for refugees, Why Am In Your Country? allows refugees and asylum seekers to tell their stories directly to the host audience, in a powerful and compelling manner.
Working with refugees and asylum seekers who are part of their regular drama psycho-social support workshops, currently running at the Chelsea Theatre, Charlotte Eagar and William Stirling are creating a ten episode pilot project of the podcast that launched in February 2024.
TROJANS UK 24-26
Tell YOUR story to the world.
All refugees/asylum seekers welcome.
Come along, meet new friends, have fun and lunch.
A new drama production written and performed by refugees from the highly acclaimed Trojan Women Project working towards a theatre adaptation of Euripides' great anti-war Greek tragedy.
NEW WORKSHOPS ONGOING
Workshops are open to women and men over 16.
Free hot dinner. Free child-care facilities for younger children.
£10 travel expenses
Trojans UK Chelsea
Chelsea Theatre
7, World's End Place, London SW10 0DR
Every Tuesday 5am to 8pm
Thanks to support from the National Lottery Community Fund, we have been given the opportunity to provide hope and support for many refugees and asylum seekers in Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, and Hammersmith and Fulham since 2022. Every year, we produce projects in Chelsea, partnering with the Chelsea Theatre on a series of ongoing initiatives. We have been running regular drama workshops and produced five public performances of our participants' brave work at the K+C Festivals, the FT Weekend Festival, and the Hush Unheard Voices Festival.
Building on a successful 18-month project in Hounslow, we are also currently running drama workshops in Stirling, Scotland, with a view to a production in September. Across these projects, we bring together a core cast of refugees who have been professional creatives in their own countries alongside passionate amateur refugee actors.
Our London workshops run every Tuesday at Chelsea theatre, working towards public performances later this year. Our ultimate aim is to mount a major London run of Trojans UK, bringing together the diverse productions that have come out of the workshops we have been running in different parts of the UK.
Thank you, National Lottery Community Fund Awards for All!
07769603233 / 07796633706
Charlotte Eagar / William Stirling
SEE THE TROJANS UK 22 PLAYGROUND THEATRE PERFORMANCE FILM
Iryna (Ukraine 2022):
"Trojans is a magic that allows one to go out of your own bubble, tell your story to others, acquire new experience in acting, communicating and interacting with people of different nationalities."
Badhurry (Afghanistan 2021):
"Being a refugee is strange and complicated. It requires a certain process to integrate in a new society… I wish every refugee could experience Trojans and feel peaceful mind through performance and Drama."
"Every refugee has their own story, culture and values but most importantly we all live in a new society, with new culture and challenges. Finding and discussing common ground, through drama helps initiate ideas to overcome the challenges."
Nadia (Ukraine 2022):
"I hope that this project will help refugees overcome trauma and send a strong message to the world that wars and violation of human rights have always been harmful to humanity and to women.”
Our core aims are helping refugees overcome isolation, trauma, depression and giving them a platform to tell their stories to their host communities as well as building links and trying to provide new professional and personal opportunities.
Trojans UK 22-25
"Astonishing...deeply moving...magnificent"
"4 stars"
(Audience reviews TROJANS UK 22 K&C Festival showing)
SUPPORT OUR WORK
by watching our films
Buy or rent our films and all proceeds go towards supporting our ongoing projects and our refugee participants.
Our films aim to amplify and document the voices and lived experiences of our refugee cast who participate in our joint therapeutic/advocacy projects.
Watch our films to gain an insight into our work, and support our ongoing projects.
TROJANS UK 22-26 THE TOUR
TROJANS UK 22-23-24 IS A BRAND NEW UK-WIDE ADAPTATION OF EURIPIDES’ ANTI-WAR TRAGEDY, THE TROJAN WOMEN
Four years into Trojans UK 22-26, we're delighted to announce the success so far of our long-term, country-wide project for refugees and host community members. We are touring Trojans UK through a series of community drama workshops. The workshops will help cultivate cross-community ties and give our refugee participants a platform to tell their stories. Partnering with Chelsea Theatre, we have restarted our London workshops, specifically for Palestinian participants. Following the completion of our successful project in Hounslow, we have also started a project in Stirling aimed at all refugees, asylum seekers, and host communities who wish to be involved.
Trojans UK is a brand new production of Euripides’ great anti-war tragedy, The Trojan Women, with a cast of refugees and host community members – including a core cast of refugees who have been professional actors in their own countries, and host community actors, with a chorus of amateur actor refugees and hosts from drama workshops. The multi-lingual workshops will also help the participants learn English.
Our long term aim is to have a London run of Trojans UK, but we are also working towards a London ‘mini-tour’ of the project so far.
The Trojans - on Location
_edited.jpg){kind=small}
