Andromache

Andromache, by Jean Racine, was written in 1667, but tells a story much older than that. Based on events from ancient Greek mythohistory directly following the Trojan War, it deals with the story of Andromache, the widow of the Trojan hero Hector, after she and her young son are taken captive by Pyrrhus, the son of Hector’s killer Achilles. As love, power, and loyalties collide among the “next generation” of Trojan War heroes, Andromache must decide whether to marry Pyrrhus and save her son’s life, or to remain true to Hector’s memory and let her son die.

Andromache deals with many issues that we as a culture are just beginning to unpack, such as the boundaries between murder and war, between love rewarded by gratitude and real mutual love, between loyal friendship and enabling, and between power that corrupts and power that empowers. As characters of the play struggle to maintain control of their lives in the aftermath of a bloody and horrific war, we come to realize just how close to the surface our past traumas live, and how closely our need for power over others mirrors our powerlessness over ourselves.