press release

Two nations on the verge of war. A leader who claims that "we wage war to save civilisation itself". A spin-doctor who determines what the people should be allowed to know. The voice of dissent ignored. And an invader who will liberate whether the people want it or not. This is the story of Cassandra, a play set around the fall of Troy. multi story re-work the ancient tale of Priam's daughter and find aftershocks that resonate with our own times.

Cassandra is in the middle of the maelstrom of war, trying to make sense of the chaos that surrounds her. And Cassandra sees what others refuse to acknowledge - a future too bleak to contemplate. Cassandra's life is inextricably interwoven with the lives of three men: her lover, her brother and the man in her dreams. Cassandra knows she must persuade one of them to believe and act before it's too late.

Cassandra was acclaimed as a must-see play in festivals across Canada in 2002. It touched raw nerves in audiences trying to make sense of the world post Sept 11^th. The questions it asks are, perhaps, all the more potent now.

"There are meditations on the nature of power, truth and trust, our suspicions and misunderstandings of people who don't share our beliefs, how war brutalises all, and in a particularly telling observation, how we have sacrificed our own heroes and gods on the altar of economic benefit."
Colin MacLean, Edmonton Sun

"Cassandra is an elegantly brutal version of the life of the Trojan priestess whose fate was to foresee the future but have her prophecies ignored. Like Cassandra we are asked to tell the civilised man from the barbarian."
Robert Enright, Globe & Mail

"This is beautiful theatre that gets under your skin."
Sheila Christie, See Magazine