CAST OF CHARACTERS

PROMISE, 15, a Nigerian refugee.

CLAIRE, 20s, an aid worker.

HADIZA, 14, a Syrian refugee. Plays Andromache.

BETHANY, plays Hecuba.

MERCY

AMIRA, plays Helen.

GIRLS 1-7

DANNY, plays Talthybius.

JOHN, plays Menelaus.

BOYS
 THE REFUGEE WOMEN
By Don Zolidis

(The set of The Trojan Women. A ruined landscape built by materials available in a
refugee camp.)

(At rise, the CHORUS is upstage, frozen.)

(BETHANY lies face down center stage.)

(She rises slowly.)

BETHANY. (As Hecuba): Lift up your head.

Lift up your eyes.
Rise, woman. Look around.
Troy is no more. And I am no longer its queen.
Queen of nothing. Queen of dust and mud.
Rise. Get on your feet.
What good is it to weep over your loss?
Spill tears over your dead?
Your husband.
Your child.
Your country.
All dead. As if they never existed.
So what will you do now, Queen of nothing?

(Thunder.)

(Sound of rain.)

(The CHORUS freezes in a new position. BETHANY joins them upstage.)

(PROMISE emerges from the CHORUS. She speaks to the audience.)

PROMISE. (To the Audience): At night, when it rains, it sounds like gunfire.
For a moment, I forget where I am. And I am home. And they are coming.

(Men’s shouts from offstage.)

MEN. (Offstage, overlapping, repeating):

Get up! Get out in the street!
Everyone out in the street!
Now!
PROMISE. (To the audience): But then I wake up. And I am here, and it is only the
sound of the rain on the tin roof.
The days are empty in the camp. Nothing to do. I missed school, having a place to go where me
and the other girls could talk. Here, there was no school. Nothing to do. So…

(CLAIRE, an aid worker, steps forward from the CHORUS.)

CLAIRE. It was Promise’s idea for the play.

(Lights change.)

PROMISE. (In the dark): I sing of fabled Troy, greatest of all cities, vanished and
dead.

(BETHANY resumes her position as the lights come up on her.)

BETHANY. (As Hecuba): So what will you do now, Queen of nothing?

Weep forever?
No. Lift up your head and curse the day they came to us.
In their ships, over the dark, shining sea.
Chasing what? A woman? All this for one woman?
No, they came for their pride. Their greed as sharp as any weapon.
And my city is nothing but smoke now.

(The CHORUS starts speaking to BETHANY.)

GIRL 1. I heard you, Hecuba.

GIRL 2. Are they coming for us?

GIRL 3. Tell me they aren’t coming!

BETHANY. (As Hecuba): They are coming for us.

GIRL 4. And what will happen? Will we be taken?

(Other GIRLS appear.)

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Who will stop them? You? You? Have you weapons to fight
them?

GIRL 5. I’ll die before they take me.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): You say that.

GIRL 5. I mean it. If one of their men touches me, I’ll cut his throat.

GIRL 6. I’ll fight them with my hands!

GIRL 7. I’ll claw their eyes out! Or die. I’ll end my life!

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Perhaps you will. Or perhaps you will decide that life, at any
cost, is worth enduring. When we find ourselves face-to-face with fate, who knows what we will
do? We are cowards, all.

(Lights change.)

PROMISE. Actually, it was Claire’s idea for the play. She’s an aid worker.

CLAIRE. No it wasn’t.

PROMISE. You said, “Let’s do Trojan Women,” and I said, “ I have no idea what that
is.”

(BETHANY approaches them.)

BETHANY. I don’t want it to be silly.

CLAIRE. Just because it’s called a play doesn’t mean it’s silly.

BETHANY. I want people crying at the end.

(HADIZA approaches from upstage.)

HADIZA. Why would people come see a show if it’s going to make them cry?

BETHANY. Because it means something. And because I’m acting in it. I want them
saying “Ah, she was so good. What is she doing here? Where is Hollywood?”

HADIZA. You’re not going to Hollywood.

BETHANY. You never know. Dream big. Look at this.

(She presents a shocked face.)

CLAIRE. What am I looking at?

BETHANY. I’m acting.

(She does the shocked face again.)
Yes?
CLAIRE. That’s great.

BETHANY. Hollywood loves this face.

(She returns to her spot.)

(MERCY comes forward.)

MERCY. Do I have to speak?

CLAIRE. No one has to speak.

PROMISE. We’d like you to speak.

MERCY. I’ll stay quiet then. I’ll just make the movements.

(MERCY heads back to the CHORUS.)

PROMISE. So we begin to rehearse–we read the play–we learn the lines–

(Upstage, the GIRLS begin to move to practice the play.)

CLAIRE. You’re forgetting the boys.

PROMISE. I am, yes. Any time a group of girls starts doing anything—

(The BOYS enter, led by DANNY and JOHN.)

DANNY. We’ve talked about it, and we want to be in the show.

PROMISE. No. It’s a girls’ show.

JOHN. You can’t just have a girls’ show. That’s stupid.

PROMISE. It’s about women. It’s in the name. The Trojan Women.

DANNY. You aren’t women. You’re girls.

PROMISE. You can do your own Trojan boys play if you can sit still long enough.

CLAIRE. We actually need some boys. To play the Greeks.

DANNY. Who are the Greeks?

CLAIRE. The villains.

PROMISE. Fine. The boys can be the villains then. But you have to listen.

(The BOYS charge offstage, shouting.)

BOYS. I want a sword!

We will fight all of you!
Hey! Stop pushing!
You pushed first!

(They’re offstage.)

PROMISE. So…we meet every day. And we think—

GIRL 2. Can this tell my story?

GIRL 3. (Overlapping): Can this tell my story?

GIRL 4. (Overlapping): Can this tell my story?

(Lights change. BETHANY resumes her spot.)

BETHANY. (As Hecuba): When we find ourselves face-to-face with fate, who knows
what we will do? We are cowards, all.

GIRL 1. They are cowards too.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): They are. But there are more of them. And a pack of jackals
is braver than a single lioness.

GIRL 1. Are we to be slaves then?

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): I have no idea, girl. I only know that we are ruined.

GIRL 1. My brother is dead.

GIRL 2. My father too. My friends.

GIRL 3. And now we are left to them.

(DANNY enters, dresses as a Greek.)

DANNY. (as Talthybius): You know me, Hecuba. My name is Talthybius, and I
have often sent messages to you from the Greeks.
BETHANY. (as Hecuba): What is it then? Are you so frightened of girls that you carry
your swords? What are you afraid of? That we will tear you apart? Where do we go?

DANNY. (as Talthybius): You are to be separated. A different man for each.

(The CHORUS reacts.)

CHORUS. What?
No!
Coward!

DANNY. (as Talthybius): The Greeks have won the war! Your men are dead and
you will come with us.

GIRL 2. You think we are prizes.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Women! Please! I am only the messenger.

GIRL 3. You are one of them.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): I tell you what I can. This is the way of war. The winners
sing songs and triumph.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Tell me then, my daughter– Cassandra? Where does she go?

DANNY. (as Talthybius): She belongs to the king.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): She is a virgin– she belongs to God.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Your God has failed you. She is the king’s now. And it
was for her purity that he wants her now.

BETHANY. (As Hecuba): And what about me?

DANNY. (as Talthybius): You are the slave of Odysseus.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): I was Queen here.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): No more.

(Lights change.)

PROMISE. “What are you doing,” they would say to us. We are learning our play.

DANNY. My father said it’s a waste of time.

GIRL 4. What is Troy, anyway?

CLAIRE. A city. Destroyed by war. By lies. By treachery. By men. Thousands of

years ago.

GIRL 2. Where was it?

CLAIRE. Turkey.

GIRL 4. We came through there.

CLAIRE. Perhaps you saw it then. Or where it was.

GIRL 6. And how did the war end?

CLAIRE. The Greeks built a horse. They built a giant wooden horse and said we’re
giving up.

GIRL 5. They are liars.

CLAIRE. Yes, well… yes they won through lying. The Trojans brought it inside the
city– they all celebrated and got falling-down drunk– and at night the warriors crept out of the
horse and killed them all in their sleep.

GIRL 5. They shouldn’t have taken in the horse.

CLAIRE. Right.

GIRL 5. These are the people who wrote the story. The killers.

GIRL 6. They were all killers. Everyone. The Trojans were killers too.

GIRL 5. They were defending their home.

GIRL 2. So who wrote it down, if all the Trojans are dead?

(Lights change back to the play.)

GIRL 1. I heard the cries.

The singing turned to screams.
They came from their hiding place-
Killing us. Their weapons scarlet with blood.
Headless men in their beds. Never waking. A smile of victory on their faces.
Young men. Our brothers. Our friends. Our husbands.
GIRL 4. Look, Hecuba. It is Andromache.

(HADIZA enters with the armor of Hector. She is stunned at the carnage. She holds her
baby in her arms.)

GIRL 4. With her son, the babe of Hector.

GIRL 5. Most sorrowful of all women, where do you go?

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Where they take me.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Courage, Andromache–

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Courage? My husband had courage. They didn’t let me
bury him. They strapped him to a chariot and dragged him ‘round the city. His body was torn by
the rocks and they tossed him in a ditch. Then they gave me this.
(She drops his armor.)
Did it help you, my husband? Your armor and your weapons and your dreams? I am left here
with your son.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): We must be strong now.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Why?

GIRL 5. Have strength.

GIRL 7. You must have strength!

HADIZA. (as Andromache): What do any of you know?! The sorrow is mine.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): We all have suffered, but–

HADIZA. (as Andromache): You have endured nothing!

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): My three sons are dead. Killed by the Greeks. The finest
boys—

HADIZA. (as Andromache): I’ll make a fire and set myself in it.

BETHANY. (As Hecuba): That is not the way.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Feel the flames on me. I’ll join my husband in the
world after this one.
GIRL 2. Please, Andromache!

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Driven like cattle. Enslaved to evil men. I will not bear
it.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): You have no choice but to bear it. Your son needs you.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Better he not grow up than grow up a servant of these
dogs.

(DANNY and other BOYS enter.)

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): What is it this time? Haven’t you tormented us enough?

DANNY. (as Talthybius): I will not speak with you, woman.

(the men approach HADIZA.)
You are much changed, Andromache. When last we spoke–

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Go to hell.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): This is not my doing. Please, do not hate me.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): What do you want?

DANNY. (as Talthybius): I need your child.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): He goes with me. He goes with me to my new master.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): He will not.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Why?

DANNY. (as Talthybius): He will never know a master.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): What do you mean? Speak plainly if you will speak.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): He must die.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): You cannot mean what you say–

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Odysseus says he must never become a man. He will seek
revenge–

HADIZA. (as Andromache): You speak truly?

DANNY. (as Talthybius): They will throw him from the wall.
(The MEN step forward to take her baby. HADIZA backs up, prepares to flee.)
Where will you go? Please give him to me.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): He’s not four months old! He was born in this war!

DANNY. (as Talthybius): And he will not know of it.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): What is wrong with you? An infant? You would kill an
infant?!

DANNY. (as Talthybius): It is not my doing.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): You serve him! It is you! If you are the servant of evil,
you are evil!

DANNY. (as Talthybius): I am doing what I was ordered to do—

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Coward! You cowards! You think this baby will destroy
you? He cannot walk or speak! He cannot hold a weapon! Is this the great threat you see? You
mighty Greeks who rule the seas and burn down our city while we sleep?! This is the righteous
way dictated by your gods?!
(They grab the baby out of her hands.)
No! No! Give him—
(They push HADIZA away from her baby.)

DANNY. (as Talthybius): What would you do? Fight us?

HADIZA. (as Andromache): I’ll kill you myself.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): One woman? Against an army? Be sensible. We will give
his body to you for a proper burial. If you fight, his body will be fed to our dogs.

(the other WOMEN hold HADIZA.)

GIRL 1. Andromache—

GIRL 3. He won’t know–

GIRL 4. What can you do?

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Let me say goodbye at least, or does that frighten you
as well?
(They let her approach the baby.)
I thought you would be a king.
HADIZA. (as Andromache): You want to hide, little bird? Shelter under my wings?
Don’t cry now. You little thing, dearest to your mother,
How sweet the fragrance of you.
Your fingers around mine. I would have loved you your entire life.
Grown proud of you. Cheered you. Seen you grow strong.
My eyes will never behold what you could become.
You are merely a beginning. And there will be no middle.
Let me kiss you a final time.
Your mother cannot save you.
No one can save you.
(They take the baby away.)

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Come now. Take him to the high wall.

BETHANY. (As Hecuba): Brave men. Brave warriors.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): I wish it was not this way. I take no joy in these orders.
I am not responsible.

(Lights change.)

GIRL 1. No one ever is, are they?

PROMISE. (to the audience): We put up signs. Come see the show. Our mothers
made costumes from what they could scrap together.

CLAIRE. The boys made swords.

PROMISE. Of course the boys made swords.

(MERCY approaches, out of the CHORUS.)

MERCY. I don’t think I will have a costume. My mother has gone to look for work
and—

PROMISE. It’s okay. We’ll find something.

MERCY. I don’t want to be a burden on the show.

PROMISE. You aren’t. Okay? We’ll find something.

MERCY. Can I ask a question? What was the war about? Why were they fighting?

CLAIRE. Pride. The Greek king’s wife was with a prince of Troy named Paris. The
Trojans all has to pay. That’s it.
 (Lights change back to the play.)

(HADIZA is in the same spot we left her.)

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Andromache. Lift up your head.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): The gods pile their sorrows on top of me. When the
Greeks come back I will force them to kill me.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): No.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): I’ll not give them the satisfaction of living for them.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): You won’t live for them. You live for you.

(DANNY enters.)

DANNY. His highness, Menelaus.

(JOHN enters with other MEN.)

JOHN. (as Menelaus): The sun shines brightly today.

My wife will be returned to me. Ten years gone and finally with her husband once more.
This ordeal is at an end. I came here not for her, of course, but on principle. To repay the wrong
done to me by that thief Paris. Men, go into their huts and pull Helen out by the hair. If they
have a good wind, we’ll be home soon.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Menelaus.

JOHN. (as Menelaus): What do you want, old woman?

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): You don’t recognize me? I suppose my sorrows have ruined
my face as well then. I was Queen here. When the city stood.

JOHN. (as Menelaus): I know.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): I beg you, when they bring Helen out, kill her.

JOHN. (as Menelaus): No mercy then?

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Don’t even look at her– if she meets your gaze you’ll be
entranced again– she brings death and nothing more.

(the MEN bring out AMIRA, playing the role of Helen.)

AMIRA. (as Helen): You speak against me, Hecuba?

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Do it now, Menelaus. Run her through and rid us of this
curse.

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Very well.

AMIRA. (as Helen): My husband! Please!

JOHN. (as Menelaus): I have not seen you in ten years, wife. I slew a city to
behold you again.

AMIRA. (as Helen): I am innocent! Let me speak!

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Innocent? You bathe in blood, woman. But let her confess
her evils.

JOHN. (as Menelaus): I make the decisions here, not you.

AMIRA. (as Helen): If you remember our love, please.

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Tell your story then.

AMIRA. (as Helen): You may not believe it, but this is the truth. I am innocent of
the crimes that she lays at my feet. You might as well blame Paris’ mother for giving birth to
him. Your fate was sealed when he entered the world.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): You would blame the prince of this city–

AMIRA. (as Helen): I do! But it was the gods themselves that decreed this
slaughter. It was Aphrodite. That vain, fickle goddess who needed his admiration–

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Nonsense.

AMIRA. (as Helen): She did! Three Goddesses approached Paris.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Who told you this?

AMIRA. (as Helen): I know the truth of it. I lived the truth of it. They declared that
he would judge them– Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite– which was the fairest? Aphrodite
promised that if Paris chose her he would have the power to seduce any woman he wished.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Why would brave Athena enter into a beauty contest with
Aphrodite? And what does Hera need with Paris’ judgment? She’s married to Zeus!
AMIRA. (as Helen): Vanity. Pride.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): You say all of this to absolve yourself–

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Hecuba. You asked her to speak, now let her speak.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Your Highness–this is madness. She would have you
believe—

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Let her speak.

AMIRA. (as Helen): Paris chose Aphrodite. She gifted him with her charm, and he
chose me. It didn’t matter to him that I was wed to another, it didn’t matter that I was an honest,
truthful woman. He plucked me like an apple from a tree. And her wicked magic stole my mind.
How can I be blamed when I am stolen by another man, when I am tied in a boat and
imprisoned amongst strangers? When my heart is twisted by the curse of a Goddess? Your
enemy is Aphrodite, my lord. She loved Paris, and you have torn her city down. Bring me back to
Greece and I will love you as if the last ten years never existed.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Witch! Did you fight him? I did not hear shouts or cries of
rage from your bed. You went with him. You seduced him. You were the one who liked his fine
looks—

AMIRA. (as Helen): I had no power over my own mind–

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): When we were winning the war, you clung to my son like a
vine. You showered him with kisses, you called him a hero. We knew that you were the cause of
all of this, that our brace men were dying in the field to support your lust. But your honeyed
tongue kept whispering in Paris’ ear, your fingers looped into his. Let the men die. Let the
Greeks die. Let the Trojans die. Only give me my love. And now you concoct this fable of a magic
curse! The only curse began on the day you were born. Menelaus, she is beautiful, but her beauty
is matched by her wickedness. Kill her now. Let me watch so I might have some justice for my
dead children.

CHORUS. (overlapping): Kill her!

Punish her!
Justice!

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Helen. You have been unfaithful and deserve the
punishment I will give you. My men have stones in their hands. They will deal out justice.

AMIRA. (as Helen): No! Please! I’m on my knees! Please don’t! I love you!

JOHN. (as Menelaus): You are nothing to me.

AMIRA. (as Helen): Then you take up the stone. If you are the wronged man, cast
the first stone at me. Bash in my head. But look me in the eyes while you do it.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Don’t listen to her.

AMIRA. (as Helen): We could live as if this war never was. Take me home.

(Pause. JOHN looks at AMIRA.)

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Put her on the boat.

(Cries from the other WOMEN.)

GIRL 2. Where is the justice?!

GIRL 3. Kill her now, my Lord!

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): How many of us here have lost our loved ones?

JOHN. (as Menelaus): You do not rule here! I will take her back with me to
Greece and she will meet her fate there.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): What fate? You said you would strike her down–

JOHN. (as Menelaus): And I will!

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): When she gets on that boat she will seduce you again—

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Enough! There has been enough blood!

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Because it has been our blood! OUR BLOOD! Not yours!
You have never spilled enough of our blood! Never in the ten years you waged war for this witch!
And now you have–

(The SOLDIERS strike BETHANY and knock her down. The other WOMEN rush to
defend her. BETHANY gets up.)

JOHN. (as Menelaus): Let’s go!

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Cowards! Pigs in the shape of men!

(JOHN stops. Turns around to face her.)

JOHN. (as Menelaus- a threat): I tore down your city.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): At night. While brave men slept. Now you kill infants. You
kill women. You kill children. You think a sword makes you strong? You think you frighten me?
You have taken everything from me. Take my life if you want.
(JOHN draws his sword– BETHANY takes hold of it.)
Go ahead then, king. If you have the heart of a man and not the heart of a pig. Do it. Run me
through. You’ve already slaughtered a baby today, why not end the life of an old woman?

(Pause).

JOHN. (as Menelaus): You belong to Odysseus. I will not destroy his property.

(He tosses her down.)

(They leave.)
(Lights change.)

PROMISE. Has any of it changed? Has the world grown up since then?

MERCY. Are we the same people?

CLAIRE. I don’t know. Maybe that’s why we tell the stories. So we know what
happened.

BETHANY. Know what?

CLAIRE. What’s come before. So maybe people will learn not to do it again. That’s
what the play is. The people who couldn’t speak. The ones who were trampled by the winners.
We keep telling their story; it gives us strength.

BETHANY. Does it?

PROMISE. I hope so.

MERCY. Will it tell my story?

(Lights change back to the play.)

GIRL 1. They will carry me away. Over the sea in their ships.

GIRL 2. What will happen to my children?

GIRL 3. My dear husband–

GIRL 4. I hope we die on the way.

The ocean will rise up and destroy us, lightning will crash into the ship–I hope to see the men
scattered, bodies everywhere. I long to see them drowning.
 (DANNY returns with the body of the baby.)

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Mother, your child is here.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): You mock me. I am no longer a mother. You have seen
to that.

GIRL 3. They threw him from the tower as one might pitch a ball.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): My child lived when I gave him to you.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): There are mothers in Greece whose children have died
here as well. They cry out for vengeance.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Do they? Can you hear them? Do their voices carry
across the broad Aegean? None of us wish our children will find glory in war. We hope they live.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): This is the way of the world. Some die, some live. If you
wish to bury him honorably, I’ll have him returned to you.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Honorably.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Lay him on his father’s shield. Dress him in funeral
garments.

HADIZA. (as Andromache): Don’t tell me what to do with my child.

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Very well. Soon we will set fire to the remains of Troy.
Level it to the ground. Then you belong to us.

(The other GREEKS enter, with torches.)

(Lights change.)

(Upstage, the GREEKS begin setting fire to the city.)

MERCY. They burned my village too.

GIRL 3. Mine too.

GIRL 2. Mine was bombed from the sky.

GIRL 6. The park where I used to play as a child–

MERCY. The whole thing on fire.

GIRL 2. I could smell the cedars–torn to pieces—
(She stops)

PROMISE. Tell your story. We’ll put your story in.

GIRL 4. (Overlapping): Tell us your story.

GIRL 6. You can tell it.

GIRL 7. Like these women told their stories.

MERCY. My village… my village burned…they set bombs…

GIRL 2. We came through Turkey. We stayed in a camp in the winter there. Not
far from where Troy was. We might have been on the same spot. Over the city that burned to the
ground. My city burned to the ground. My city bombed. Shattered. Destroyed. Artillery shells
lifting the ground around us like blooms. My brother went to fight. My father didn’t want him to
go. He said it wasn’t our battle– men from other places had come to fight their own wars. He
said it was his country, he was going to fight for it. We never saw him again. I don’t know if he’s
alive or dead.
We were on a raft to cross the Aegean. The same sea the Greeks crossed.
I wonder if we passed over their skeletons–somewhere at the bottom of the sea- those men who
came to fight and die and burn…maybe…maybe people are no different today.

MERCY. We left. We crossed the Sahara in a pickup truck. Three families together–
in Libya we were robbed…

(She stops.)

PROMISE. Tell it.

MERCY. We set out from Tripoli in a boat. Some hulking rusted mess– forty years
old. Crossing back and forth. They crowded us on. Packed in. You couldn’t turn around. We
stood on the edge and heard the seagulls and the lifting of the waves, we bucked and bucked and
bucked. The engine gave out somewhere in the middle. You could feel it. The whole ship shook,
and then the noise of the engine vanished and it was silent on the water. People said nothing.
We were listening for the engine. But we couldn’t hear it, all we could hear was the waves
slapping against the side of the ship and the seagulls.

The men running the boat sent out a distress call. We stood, what else could we do? There were
hundreds of us on a ship meant for fifty. What do you do? With each minute, you know, you
know what’s going to happen. You may die here. The longer this takes. The longer this takes
more of us will die. We looked around at each other. Who are the strongest swimmers? What do
we do with the babies? We kept looking out at the water– there were babies crying, women
trying to stand, the sun on our heads— the breeze coming off the water. Seagulls circling. There
was nothing out there. Just the flat line of horizon.

How long would we float? How long before we sank?

Of course we knew there was risk. We knew people before us who had died. Most people made it
across. Why not us?

I don’t know how long the boat drifted. They kept trying to fix the engine, but it didn’t start.

A lot of us had never been out in the ocean before. Every direction you looked– water. The whole
world was water. The sky blended in with the sea and we were a tiny point on a huge planet, and
we were tiny people about to die and no one would know.

The sun was going down when we saw the rescue ship. We must’ve been there ten hours, maybe,
people started shouting. They started moving towards the side of our little boat– pushing– there
were too many people pushing— someone was shouting that we were going to capsize– but you
couldn’t stop them, there was nothing to hold on to except other people, and they were falling
too. You felt the whole ground beneath you drop, and the water rush over your feet and up over
your knees.

And then I was in the water. My mother was next to me. My brothers. People were trying to get
hold of anything– a man grabbed me and pushed me under the water to keep himself afloat. I
could feel legs around me in the water, kicking me, pushing off of me.

I don’t know how I got my head up. The water stung my eyes and then I felt someone’s hand
grab me and pull me out of the sea.

There were lights all over the water now and the men on the rescue ship were throwing life
preservers.

There was a moment when I didn’t know if my family was alive or dead. When I thought I was
alone in the world, now. They had all been near me when we went into the water and there were
so many people still in the sea.

They were alive. My mother found me. She saw me go under the water, she didn’t want to come
out until she found me, but they pulled her out anyway.

PROMISE. How does the story end?

CLAIRE. The play?

BETHANY. How do we finish it?

CLAIRE. In the play the men burn down Troy.

PROMISE. And?

CLAIRE. And the women go.

PROMISE. I have another idea.

(Lights change to the play.)

DANNY. (as Talthybius): Set fire to the city. Let your men level it to the ground.
Nothing of Troy will remain.

GIRL 4. The whole town is burning.

The city is vanishing.

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): They are driving us like cattle– taking us away from our
homes.

GIRL 5. Troy will be forgotten.

GIRL 7. Our story is ended.

(They put their heads down)

MERCY. No.
(Silence)
Lift up your head.

(GIRL 1 lifts her head.)

GIRL 1. Lift up your head.

(GIRL 2 lifts her head.)

GIRL 2. (Overlapping):Lift up your head.

(GIRL 3 and GIRL 4 lift their heads.)

GIRL 3 & GIRL 4. (Overlapping): Lift up your head.

(GIRLS 5,6,& 7 lift their heads.)

ALL GIRLS. LIFT UP YOUR HEAD.

(BETHANY lifts her head.)

BETHANY. (as Hecuba): Rise women.

ALL. RISE WOMEN.

PROMISE. I sing of fabled Troy, greatest of all cities. Vanished.

GIRL 1. But remembered–

GIRL 2. I sing of Aleppo–

(The other GIRLS, overlapping, say the names of their cities)

GIRLS. I sing of Mora

I sing of Raqqa
I sing of Kabul
I sing of Maiduguri
I sing of Yola

ALL. LIFT UP YOUR HEAD AND STAND

(They stand, fists up.)

(Lights down.)

END OF PLAY