Global Arab Network | UAE: Troy show thrills Abu Dhabi

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UAE: Troy show thrills Abu Dhabi

Global Arab Network - - Maha Karim

Saturday, 14 November 2009 21:52

In two full house nights, Fire of Anatolia thrilled Abu Dhabi audience with their exceptional performance in the legendary dance show (Troy) hosted last Thursday and Friday at Emirates palace auditorium by Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH).

The show divided to two acts and 13 stages comes as part of the authority’s strategy to turn Abu Dhabi into an international hub for arts and culture by hosting world renowned art works.

The 'Fire of Anatolia' Dance Group which was founded in 2002 in Turki and gained major success with performances worldwide, is giving life to the myth of Troy for the first time in the region. The show present the composition of history of art dating back to 3,000 years ago. The fairy tale which belongs back to prehistoric times (1180 BC), was written by an Anatolian poet from Izmir to the memory of humanity.

The fairy tale belongs to the prehistoric times… It is from the mouth of a blind poet from İzmir… Exactly 2500 years ago, the great poet Homer told about the magnificent Anatolian city Troy, its immortal loves, its wars lasting forever, and its armies with tussled hair. He had told about how the gods, jinxing the city where peace was considered the highest value, intervened with the fates of men. The fate was the same three thousand years ago, and it hasn’t changed a bit today.

The show

1st ACT
STAGE I
Three lives in Troy
Marketplace
Peace and tranquility dominates our golden city. Welcoming people from all around the world, the hospitable Trojans had built the most important trade center worldwide back in those days and people from the farthest countries would mingle there freely.
The “palace guards”, Troy’s strongest security forces perform a spectacle for the people before the ceremony begins. This is the announcer of the grandiose meeting that is about to take place.

Years later, Paris is at palace where he was born

Raised by the shepherds in the Ida Mountains, Paris is introduced to his brother Hector in the palace where he was born. The initially stressful meeting of the two siblings would gradually turn into an immortal friendship. However, their sister Cassandra knows that Paris would put a spell on the city and thus she tries to interfere with the meeting.

The Trojan celebrate this meeting with a lot of enthusiasm, not knowing what is about to happen.

STAGE II
The Gods, Cassandra, and the Trojan women
The war never belongs to the soldiers. They are not the ones that start it. In fact, they are the victims of the adversities which they didn’t create and for which they don’t take sides. The Trojan War was also created by the gods and its consequence was determined by them. The first signs of the iniquities that would befall on the brave Trojans were manifesting. Some of the gods take side with the Trojans and some other with the Achaeans and escalate the war. They observe the ongoing war from the Ida Mountains and intervene with the fate of the combat.

Cassandra knows everything that happened and will happen. The seer Cassandra, the soothsayer Cassandra.. She was probably the very first wise woman of Anatolia. Yet, what’s the use of knowing, in an edgy world dominated by men?

Cassandra warns them with all her might, like a madwoman. She keeps saying that Troy will be demolished and burnt to ashes. Nobody wants to take heed of her. The Trojan women on the other hand, with whom she would share the same fate, are always on her side.

“These soils will drink the blood of my brothers; the brave ones will fall on it one by one like seeds. Their teardrops will water the poppies; lamentations will be sang for each and every newborn baby; it is the bare truth mother, not a lie, you tell it; you cannot just wash out the dreams in water; the day finally has come; the fire you fed in your bosom will swallow the Troy in the end.”
Cassandra is captured by the palace guards by the orders of her father. Her prophesies find no sympathetic ear.

STAGE III
Love in Troy
Paris, the most handsome young man in the world, the herdsman to the flocks on the Ida Mountains, the son of the majestic king Priamos falls in love with the most beautiful woman from the shore across. The blond Helen will belong to Paris as it was ordered by the gods and will bring along destruction to Troy.
Helen comes as a bride to the most beautiful palace of the east, in spite of Cassandra.

STAGE IV
The Achaeans are at the Anatolian shores
The old friends from the shore across arrive with thousands of dark ships, bringing along their dark fury. Yet they used to come to shop here in the old times. And this was exactly what made them lust over it. Helen staying in the Trojan palace would be a good excuse for the war. The formidable Achilles who has always been protected by the gods was also among the troops. He had arrived in Troy for a war that wasn’t his, only for the sake of fame, fortune, and to let blood. They attack the temple as soon as they arrive and take the nuns as slaves, which was all a precursor of what they were about to do. Achilles takes the Apollo nun Briseis as a slave, and when Agamemon rescues Briseis, Achilles gets furious and decides not to participate in the war at the Achaean fronts.

STAGE V
An Anatolia, shoulder to shoulder
All the people of Anatolia join forces against an army that was much stronger, just as they were going to do at the same place years later, in a similar war in Gallipoli.
“They arrived, leaving behind their snowy mountains and their fields thick with ears, they arrived, swearing to a lifelong wait, leaving their mothers behind who shed no tears at all, they arrived leaving behind their virgin brides and newborn babies suckling on the fecund breasts of their women, they arrived saying it is for the homeland we hit the road, towards the golden-colored Troy, it’s worth dying for the homeland.”

2nd ACT
STAGE I
Sea-sparkle
Trio for the godly creatures floating over a mystical sea, a father, son, and a mother…
It is the last night of Hector. He is saying goodbye to his baby in the swaddle and his wife Andromahe. Cassandra’s friend Andromahe knows about everything. She tries to talk her brave husband into not warring with Achilles, yet her attempts are useless. Hector is the prince of Troy. He is our first hero. The fearless Hector is ready to meet the immortal Achilles, who has the support of the gods, one to one and he has no fear of dying.

STAGE II
War 1
The brave forces of Anatolia, the joined Anatolian army fights off the much stronger Achaean army in front of the bastions several times. Achilles’ nephew Patroklus, girded with the weapons of Achilles challenges Hector during the fights. Thinking that he is fighting against Achilles, Hector kills Patroklus. He then realizes that he merely killed a young boy and takes a brake from the war that day. The Achaeans mourn for Patroklus.

STAGE III
Cassandra – The dance of the skeletons
Cassandra warns the Trojans who once more have faith in their victory. Yet the gods are with the Achaeans and therefore everybody is going to die. The skeletons would be raised to fight in this endless war, where even the dead are fighting in the midst of war cries. The Troy will burn, everybody will die, says Cassandra. Yet nobody believes her.

STAGE IV
The scouts – War 2
With all his cruelty and supported by the gods, Achilles gets back in the war to avenge for Patroklus. First the scouts rush in, and then the cruel Achilles. The forces kill tens of Trojans and enter the castle, followed by him facing Hector one to one. In spite of the cries of his mother, father, and his wife pleading him to come inside, Hector fights like a hero. The godly Achilles, whose body cannot be injured, receives several blows from Hector and finally kills him in this unfair fight.

STAGE V
At the Achaean camp
Trailing along the dead body of Hector near the Trojan territory, Achilles brings his corpse to the camp and disrespects his funeral. In the first flush of their victory, the Achaeans celebrate. The Trojan king Priamos, Hector’s father comes to the camp in disguise and demands the dead body of his son. Moved by his courage, Achilles hands over the corpse to him and instantly senses that He is also fated to die. The Trojan gods have designed his unique death.

STAGE VI
Hector’s funeral
Hector, the first hero of the Anatolian soils is sent off with lamentations sung. His wife Andromahe, his mother Hekabe, his sister Cassandra, Paris, the women of Anatolia, and the mourners… The entire Troy mourns.

STAGE VII
The Trojan commanders
Hector’s brothers-in-arms, his comrades-in-fight, his allies… They gird themselves in arms once again, king Priamos leads the army, wishing to give a final blow to the Achaeans and avenge his son. The Achaeans have retreated, leaving behind a dubious horse. The Achaeans have actually hid themselves in this horse which they built from the remaining pieces of their ship, waiting for the Trojans to allow them back in the city. They have realized that they would never be able to pass the Trojan ramparts and their joined forces otherwise.

STAGE VIII
The Trojan horse
The Trojans are capable mare raisers, competent riders, owners of noble colts and winged horses. When they see the wooden horse, the symbol of their city which they regard as holy, they consider it as a gift from god and bring it to the city, along with the evil lurking inside of it. The warnings of Cassandra are of no use again. Completely ignorant of what’s going to happen, the Trojans organize festivities around the horse, celebrating both the end of the war and their victory.
Yet when the night falls, the evil inside the horse comes out. Achilles, Odysseus, and the others open the gates to the city and let the Achaeans in. With an arrow in his hand, Hector’s brother Paris waits for Achilles when the slaughter begins.

Global Arab Network

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