Troilus and Cressida
by William Shakespeare
Company: The Citizens' Company
Venue: Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow
Performance dates: 30th March – 14th April 1973
Synopsis: "This warped view of the Shakespeare play purports to relate the situation of Greeks and Trojans to Americans and Japanese in the war that ended with Hiroshima." As described by Daily Express critic Mamie Crichton
Cast:
| Thersites | - | Jeremy Blake |
| Hector | - | David Yelland |
| Troilus | - | David Hayman |
| Paris | - | Benny Young |
| Æneas | - | Peter Turner |
| Achilles | - | Mike Gwilym |
| Patroclus | - | Rayner Bourton |
| Menelaus | - | Jonathan Levy |
| Ulysses | - | LEWIS COLLINS |
| Ajax | - | Patrick Hannaway |
| Diomedes | - | Douglas Heard |
| Helen | - | Di Trevis |
| Cressida | - | Angela Chadfield |
| Pandarus | - | John Truscott |
| Calchas | - | Patrick Rice |
Comment:
Many were shocked by this production, with "its parade of pulchritude (male and female) and its predilection for black leather loincloths" and "massed male bodies all but naked, the only two females topless and two other persons in constant, nauseating homosexual embraces". The American accents weren't popular either.
Reviews:
"Some weather this (American accent) better than others; there is an admirable and clearly audible Ulysses, cheroot-smoking and poker-faced, played by Lewis Collins" Glasgow Herald, 1st April, 1973
"Good things there may be – Lewis Collins' strong and menacing Ulysses..." James Watson, 31st March, 1973
"Outstanding in the cast: ...Lewis Collins..." Sunday Mail, 1st April, 1973
"Lewis Collins comes out of the whole thing best as Ulysses" Mamie Crichton, Daily Express