Troilus and Cressida
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Drama on 3: Troilus and Cressida
Sun 30th Oct 2005, 19:00 on BBC Radio 3
Set during the Trojan War, Shakespeare's powerful drama about a doomed love and the futility of war is also an extraordinarily topical enquiry into ethics, values and the slippery nature of truth.
This is the first radio production for more than 20 years.
Director:.........Marc Beeby
Troilus:............Paterson Joseph
Pandarus:.........Derek Griffiths
Aeneas:...........Jimmy Akinqbola
Cressida:.........Nikki Amuka-Bird
Agamemnon:.........Gerard McDermott
Menelaus:.......John Cummins
Nestor:..........John Rowe
Ajax:........Harry Myers
Thersites:..........Toby Jones
Achilles:........Neil Dudgeon
Patroclus:.........Jim Sturgess
Ulysses:.........Paul Rhys
Diomedes:.........Jonathan Keeble
Helen:........Colleen Prendergast
Hector:.......Ray Fearon
Paris:.........Chu Omambala
Cassandra:.......Gbemisola Ikumelo
Priam:.........Burt Caesar
Andromache:........Ndidi Ama
In the second scene of this epic play, Cressida, left alone, which is the only time any of the characters ever utter their true thoughts, sets the mood for the whole drama when she says "Women are angels, wooing: Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing. That she beloved knows nought that knows not this: Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is." This encapsulates the action - so much of the play is battles, bloodshed and brawls - and the game-playing. Cressida toys with Troilus, the man who loves her, while all the men slip around the truth about their intentions and ambitions, either of love or of war. It's Shakespeare's third-longest play, but this production, under Marc Beeby's experienced direction, flies by, even when the warriors and lovers seem weary of the path that they have chosen to follow.
RT reviewer: Jane Anderson
MP3 files hosted by archive.org.