"A fine, frightening transformation of Hecuba, and throughout, a taut dramatic sense, filled with the unexpected...I've gone through your pages (hastily, I admit, but time is short) with admiration for the ambition of the play and, in contemporary terms, its Greekness. Many thanks and best of luck."
Robert Fagles
Professor of Comparative Literature Princeton University, translater of the Iliad, Odyssey, the Theban plays, the Oresteia, and treasured Greek poetry.
"This is a considerable poetic work and achievement.
"I will note just a few things, but they will be suggestive of the whole. Please keep in mind that what follows is merely one person's observations, and that it has been many years since I taught drama and particularly the Greek Classic Tragedies at Loyola College.
"Change of pace and mood are effective in Greek Soldier's monologue.
"Interchange between Talthybius and Hecuba moves very well, and as it progresses tells-and-does-not-tell: a method in classical Greek tragedy, as you obviously well know.
"Your choruses effectively provide information, mark passages of time and place (interludes) while also setting mood and moving story ahead. Have a character of their own.
"Choruses of Greek Warriors, and following, Trojan Chorus, are dynamic and strong, unified.
"Your poetry and dramatic effects seem to gain strength as it progressed...Ordering and variations of the lines, pauses, run-ons, sound effects are clean and strong and effective poetry.
"A great deal of power in some passages.
"Highly poetic ending, well done, a fitting philosophical image-- both particular and universal.
"Well, thanks again for this opportunity. I enjoyed the work."
Former Professor of the Humanities, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD
"The early passages are very compelling; it's very easy to draw contemporary comparisons with a soldier coming home having seen destruction that he cannot describe to anyone else. You do a good job of building Hecuba's despair at losing her children. This, too, has many modern-day references that would make it accessible to an audience of the present.
"I like the structural twists you put into the play, such as the rhymes of the choral sections that help bridge the passages (movements? acts?) of the play.
"Reading the play, the language was strong: rhythmic, clean, good rhyming when you did it. I felt a little handicapped by only being able to read it -- it's clearly meant to be heard, not read, and that's probably its' strongest point. I would like to hear a reading of the play to find out exactly how strong it really is.
"Overall, I enjoyed the play and want to hear it. Only by hearing it will I (and, I'm guessing, other audiences) be able to fully figure out just how strong it is."
Resident Playwright
Script Lab, Chicago Dramatists Workshop