Andreea Tudose
HECUBA SEEN FROM THE WATER

“Like an actor, a mourner is a duplicitous figure, one who imitates death,
but with a living voice, who testifies to death, but cannot help still being alive.”
“The Survivor’s Song” by Sheila Murnaghan

Hecuba seen from the water is an exploration of the multiple voices of grief, and of tragedy as form. Taking Sheila Murnaghan’s article as a starting point, this work is interested in a version of tragedy that is not merely about death, but about surviving others’ deaths. A survival in which we – all of us who are alive – are complicit. How do we, “the survivors”, relate to those who have died, and how do we relate to one another?

How can I mourn my dead without my suffering and my loss taking centre stage? Is there a way in which “the starker loss experienced by the dead” could take the space, even for a second? Could staging their absence ever resurrect their presence?

With these questions in mind, the work looks to negotiate a new participatory dynamic between performer and audience, which would allow for something to appear, a presence “imagined” or “witnessed” together in the empty space.

Aside from Murnaghan’s essay, influences include British playwright Tim Crouch, Portuguese theatre director Tiago Rodrigues and Tadeusz Kantor’s writings.

Andreea Tudose is an actor and writer. Born in Romania in 1992, she moved to England aged 11. Upon completing her BA in Modern Languages, and her MPhil in Comparative Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, she was awarded a studentship at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. During this time, she continued to train and work as an actress both in the UK and in Paris. On stage she has worked with Nicholas Barter (RADA), Lionel Parlier (Paris VIII), Lionel Gonzalez, Troupe Geripae from South Korea and Fortebraccio Teatro from Italy. She began acting in short films after being introduced to screen acting by directors Lucas Rue and Mary Nighy. After co-creating a version of Strindberg’s La plus forte with Mathieu Delaveau in Paris in 2016, she became increasingly interested in physical theatre.

Text: ANDREEA TUDOSE, “Hecuba” by EURIPIDES (translated by William Arrowsmith)

Premiere on 1st February 2020 in Von Krahl Theatre (Tallinn)