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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
TROJAN WOMEN PRESS
CLICK ON THE PROJECTS BELOW TO READ REVIEWS, ARTICLES AND INSIGHT WRITTEN ABOUT OUR WORK
Trojans UK
22, 23, 24
post on X by Charlotte Eagar on Trojans UK 23 interview for the BBC World Service (2023)
'A BRAND NEW ADAPTATION OF EURIPIDES’ ANTI-WAR TRAGEDY, THE TROJAN WOMEN WITH A CAST OF UK BASED REFUGEES AND HOSTS' (2023)
'18 shows - Trojans UK 23' (2023)
'Trojans UK 22' (2022)
'Archive Listing of Trojans UK 22' (2022)
The Trojans Glasgow
'Greek tragedy staged in Glasgow to help Syrian refugees deal with traumas of war' (2019)
Posted on X, by Paul English (2019)
'The Trojans: Syrian refugees bring stories of war to life in Glasgow' (2019)
'Glasgow's Syrian refugees update ancient play with their own stories' (2019)
'How a play written 2,500 years ago is giving hope to Syrian refugees in Scotland' (2019)
Kaleidoscope
'Syrian refugee drama project moves from stage to screen, and back' (2018)
Glasgow Drama Workshops
'Trojan Woman Project' (2018)
'Empowering refugee voices: Nidaa’s experience with Trojan Women' (2024)
'Glasgow’s Easterhouse To Stage Ancient “Trojan Women” Play With War-Scarred Syrian Refugees' (2018)
Queens of Syria -
Film
'Abu Dhabi Festival’s Sanad Film Fund Announces Winners Of Its Second Cycle' (2014)
'Euripides’ 'The Trojan Women' gives Syrian refugees the opportunity to express their own feelings of loss and exile.' (2014)
'Queens of Syria Documentary Dcreening and Director Q&A with Yasmin Fedda' (2014)
'Queens of Syria: How 50 women made award-winning film' (2015)
'I shall leave as my city turns to dust: Queens of Syria and women in war' (2016)
'Queens of Syria: A modern story of women in war' (2015)
'Review: 'Queens of Syria' Brings New Perspective To Syrian Crisis' (2015)
'GRAMNet Film Series Queens of Syria & Cartographers' (2016)
'Ethnographic Film Series'
'Queens of Syria resource pack' (2016)
'Screening of Queens of Syria to take place at St Johns'
'BU screens ‘Queens of Syria’ doc highlighting universality of Greek plays, stories of refugees' (2021)
'"Queens of Syria" by Yasmin Fedda' (2017)
Queens of Syria 5 star review (2015)
'Queens of Syria" film and theatre project' (2016)
'Movie News: Queens of Syria' (2017)
'Queens of Syria Film Reinterprets Euripides’ Trojan Women' (2016)
'Plight of Syrian exiles showcased in film'
Queens of Syria -
UK Tour
'A Developing Artists, Refuge Productions and Young Vic co-production' (2016)
'Queens of Syria review – the most urgent work on the London stage' (2016)
'Queens of Syria Will Be Performed by Syrian Refugees at London's Young Vic' (2016)
'Queens of Syria - UK/National Tour' (2016)
'Zoe Lafferty’s production reminds us how much refugees leave behind' (2016)
'Queens of Syria, Young Vic, review: 'a compelling and humbling show' made by refugees' (2016)
'Queens of Syria: Voices of the dispossessed' (2016)
'Review: Queens of Syria at the Young Vic' (2016)
'Queens of Syria, Young Vic, London — ‘Profoundly moving’' (2016)
'Theatre: Queens of Syria, Young Vic, SE1' (2016)
The World to Hear
'The World to Hear: Queens of Syria UK Theatre Tour' (2017)
Syria: Trojan Women
'The Syrian Women' (2013)
'Syria’s Trojan Women'
'Syria Trojan Women' (2014)
'The Syria Trojan Women from therapeutic theatre to a cry for action'
'Syrian women share their stories in new version of ancient anti-war play' (2013)
We Are All Refugees
'Six-part radio soap opera 'We Are All Refugees' broadcast in the Middle East' (2015)
'We Are All Refugees: The radio soap about displaced Syrians inspired by The Archers' (2014)
Oliver!
'The first Arabic production of ‘Oliver!’ (2015)
''Oliver' with a twist: refugees take on classic' (2015)
'Oliver! with a twist: musical swaps Dickensian London for modern Amman' (2015)
'Teaching 'Oliver!' to the Children of Syrian Refugees in Jordan' (2015)
'‘Oliver!’ to come to life in Arabic in Amman next week' (2015)
'Syrian refugees put Arab twist on Oliver!' (2015)