This is a play about jealousy, pride, loss, grief and destruction. And the odd thing is that it is so beautiful. Perhaps it is because we see in Euripides’ play that when human beings are pushed to extremes, when they have lost everything that sustains them, they can reveal a transcendent dignity. The Trojan Women reminds us of the worst and the best in us.

The Trojan Women is shaped around remarkable monologues and short, dramatic scenes: a grandmother, believing that she has lost all her family, asks herself how she can go on; a woman tries to defend her adultery to the husband she left and whom she believes will kill her; a mother bids her son farewell, knowing he will be pushed to his death.

For this Hayman Theatre production, hot new designer, Claude Marcos, has designed setting and costumes to suggest the luxury and opulence of the Troy destroyed by the invading Greeks. The production begins at dawn, just after the Greeks have sneaked from the wooden horse, taken over the town and killed all the men.

'It's the combination of high emotion and great dignity that attracts me,' director Donald Pulford said. Inspired by a visit to the ancient theatres, last year, this is his first foray into the beautiful Greek tragedies.