FringeReview Scotland 2026
Trojan Women: Why am I in your country
The Trojan Women Project
Genre: Community Theatre, Fringe Theatre
Venue: MacRobert Arts Centre
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
Trojan Women: Why I am in your country, is Euripides’ Trojan Women with elements of it taken out to allow the voices of refugees from the Stirling area to tell their tales. It charts the journeys of Sudanese, Syrian, Afghani and Ukrainian refugees and their arrival in the UK.
Review
Trojan Women platformed the voices of women traumatised by the war, but here Euripides’ anti-war play is hollowed out so that you have the structure but instead of Trojan voices we get the contemporary stories of nine refugees.
In the UK, the Trojan Women Project works with refugees who have arrived without family, friends or anyone to support them. They provide a place to meet, get comfort and make friends that builds their own infrastructure. Funded by local authorities they pay travel expenses, provide a meal and have a weekly workshop which leads to performance.
And so, on a Thursday night, in Stirling, these nine new Stirling residents recount tales which ranges from a Ukrainian actor who has performed in Paris now left without an artistic opportunity, of a Syrian taxi driver who escaped from the danger in Damascus, or the other Syrian refugee who went back to Damascus to see that their home had been reduced to rubble, the Sudanese refugee who escaped racism in her first Scottish home, and one day asked one of the gentlemen walking past if it would be okay to walk with him and practice her English, the Ukrainian refugee who struggled with depression while still in Ukraine and was rescued by that Ukrainian actress who supported her to come to a new home near Stirling. There are other stories told with different nuances that really add.
This was an exceptional piece of theatre, because it was not polished.
It has an under-scored, under-rehearsed feel to it and we are warned before the beginning that we should note that our performers will have scripts in hand. There are various moments where people have lost their place which are really touching, not least because almost every single person on stage wished to use their second language, English. A gesture of respect to us, their “hosts”. There are however beautifully tender moments where somebody lost their place or didn’t realise it was their time, and a member of the cast would move closer, hold their hand, touch them, tenderly looking up to them to give them comfort that it was not a problem for them and therefore was never a problem, for us.
That human connection touched you beyond the footlights. It made tenderness part of the performance. What also struck me was the costume. There were costumes on stage that had a brightness and a pride that reminded me of when I was a child growing up in the seaside town of Ayr. I used to love the summer because during the summer people of different nationalities would come to the home of Rabbie Burns. I would be delighted in not just seeing the different people on the streets but also to hear the different accents and the different languages. It didn’t make me feel less Scottish. What made me feel more Scottish was to sit amongst these people who are our new Scots and hear what they have contributed to our country.
It ends not just with them telling us stories that make our hearts grow as a nation because of their gratitude and kind words to the welcome they have received from Scotland, but also as a call to arms for those of us who bear a responsibility to challenge the narrative of those who hide behind balaclavas
It certainly needs a little bit of an edit and a little more rehearsal which the directors not only acknowledge but hope to have the opportunity to revisit it.
I really hope they can, because there’s not only a message in here that the Scottish people should hear, but there’s a message that Scotland should scream at the top of their lungs. Our screens and social media are completely overtaken by protest in balaclavas. These are narratives that are not hidden. In fact, to counter the propaganda and lies, this type of performance offers hope that theatre recognises a truth which can be debated through perspective and connection, not by conflict and confrontation. Welcome to Scotland, and welcome to real drama.
