Ransacking Troy
by Erin Shields
East 15 Acting School • MFA International Acting • The Corbett Theatre • 2026
East 15 Acting School • MFA International Acting • The Corbett Theatre • 2026
What if the women of Greece went to Troy to stop the war? A reimagining of the Iliad and Odyssey exploring womanhood, power and what it means to fight for change in a world controlled by men.
The ProductionErin Shields’ Ransacking Troy begins with a “what if”: what if the women of Greece refused to remain at home and instead travelled to Troy themselves, determined to stop the war?
Their journey takes them through the familiar events of the Iliad and Odyssey, but shifts our perspective away from the men who wage war and towards those living with its consequences. At the heart of the play are questions about womanhood, relationships between women, power and powerlessness, and whether it is possible to create change inside a system built to exclude you. What interested me particularly was that the women are not passive witnesses to someone else’s epic. They go on the journey, return from Troy, and do what men have always done: they tell us the story. |
|
Who Gets to Tell the Epic?
The play begins at the end. The women have returned from Troy and gather to tell us what happened.
That act of storytelling became central to the production. Traditionally, epic stories are carried home by men: stories of battles fought, victories won and heroes lost. Here, the women take control of that form. They decide what is remembered, what is reconstructed and how their journey will be told.
I wanted the storytelling to remain visible. Rather than disappearing completely into the past, there was always a sense that these women were actively creating the story for us in the present — stepping into memories, inhabiting different roles and returning to themselves as storytellers.
That act of storytelling became central to the production. Traditionally, epic stories are carried home by men: stories of battles fought, victories won and heroes lost. Here, the women take control of that form. They decide what is remembered, what is reconstructed and how their journey will be told.
I wanted the storytelling to remain visible. Rather than disappearing completely into the past, there was always a sense that these women were actively creating the story for us in the present — stepping into memories, inhabiting different roles and returning to themselves as storytellers.
|
Playing With TimeRansacking Troy moves across three timelines: the women returning from Troy and telling their story, the journey itself, and a past within that past as earlier events are brought into the telling.
We were always physically in the throne room of Mycenae, so rather than trying to recreate every location in the story, the actors used whatever was already in the room to take us there. Objects could be repurposed, spaces reimagined and the throne room transformed through the performers’ belief in what they were creating. There was something almost like make-believe in that process: if the actors believed that this object was now something else, or that this corner of the room had become another place entirely, we invited the audience to believe it with them. Lighting became important in keeping the different layers of storytelling clear. Distinct states helped signal when we moved into the past within the past, as well as moments of narration, allowing us to travel quickly through time without interrupting the momentum of the story. |
Expanding the Chorus
The play was originally written for nine performers. For this production, I worked with a company of fifteen: nine principal performers alongside an ensemble of six actors who multi-roled throughout the production.
Rather than simply adding bodies to the stage, I wanted the expanded company to become part of the storytelling language. The ensemble allowed us to enlarge the world around the nine women — creating characters, environments and the wider machinery of the epic while maintaining the central journey of the original text.
Multi-roling also gave the ensemble an opportunity to develop distinct characters while operating collectively, moving between individual storytelling and chorus work throughout the production.
Rather than simply adding bodies to the stage, I wanted the expanded company to become part of the storytelling language. The ensemble allowed us to enlarge the world around the nine women — creating characters, environments and the wider machinery of the epic while maintaining the central journey of the original text.
Multi-roling also gave the ensemble an opportunity to develop distinct characters while operating collectively, moving between individual storytelling and chorus work throughout the production.
Women, Power + Change
The women begin their journey believing they can intervene. If they can reach Troy, speak to their husbands and make themselves heard, perhaps they can stop what is happening.
What interested me was the tension between their agency and the structures surrounding them. These are intelligent, determined women taking action — but they are trying to enact change inside a world in which the power to wage or end the war ultimately does not belong to them.
Their relationships with one another became central to that journey. The play asks what solidarity between women can achieve, where it fractures, and how differences in experience, status and desire complicate the idea that womanhood automatically creates unity.
Underneath it all was a question that felt painfully contemporary: what does it mean to keep trying to change a system when the people with the power to change it refuse to listen?
What interested me was the tension between their agency and the structures surrounding them. These are intelligent, determined women taking action — but they are trying to enact change inside a world in which the power to wage or end the war ultimately does not belong to them.
Their relationships with one another became central to that journey. The play asks what solidarity between women can achieve, where it fractures, and how differences in experience, status and desire complicate the idea that womanhood automatically creates unity.
Underneath it all was a question that felt painfully contemporary: what does it mean to keep trying to change a system when the people with the power to change it refuse to listen?
|
|
|
The Cost of WarThe epic tradition tends to remember war through the people who fight it. Ransacking Troy continually turns our attention towards everyone else.
I wanted the production to hold onto the human cost underneath the scale of the mythology: the people waiting, grieving, surviving and carrying the consequences of decisions they did not make. The gods, heroes and battles remain, but the question shifts from who won? to who was left to live with it? |
Building the World
Working with fifteen actors in training allowed us to build the production around both individual character work and collective storytelling, using the scale of the company to create the epic world around the nine central women.
Creative
Writer: Erin Shields
Director: Kay Brattan
Assistant Director: Genesis Heiser
Set Designer: Dan Southwell
Costume Designer: Anna Toumanova
Lighting Designer: Stuart Webb
Sound Designer: Yuri Furtado
Company Stage Manager: David Palmer
Deputy Stage Manager: Alex Kewley
Assistant Stage Managers: Dani White and Madeleine Nolan-Eng
Wardrobe: Emily Dolan and Sirry Johanns
Photos by Andrew H Williams
Company
MA/MFA International Acting Class of 2025/26 · 15 actors
Writer: Erin Shields
Director: Kay Brattan
Assistant Director: Genesis Heiser
Set Designer: Dan Southwell
Costume Designer: Anna Toumanova
Lighting Designer: Stuart Webb
Sound Designer: Yuri Furtado
Company Stage Manager: David Palmer
Deputy Stage Manager: Alex Kewley
Assistant Stage Managers: Dani White and Madeleine Nolan-Eng
Wardrobe: Emily Dolan and Sirry Johanns
Photos by Andrew H Williams
Company
MA/MFA International Acting Class of 2025/26 · 15 actors
