★★★★

“Some agonies are beyond telling and some must be told,” so began this compelling theatre piece.

13 female Syrian refugees, currently living in Jordan, present their own stories and weave them into an ancient Greek play about war.

‘The Trojan Women,’ written by Euripides in 415 BC, is a protest at an atrocity committed during the Peloponnesian War. Men were killed, women and children were sold into slavery. It’s a play about refugees and strong women. These modern Syrian women, reading it in drama workshops in 2013, marvelled at the similarities with their own experiences and identified with the characters.

The original text was adapted, so this is not a play in the traditional sense, more a series of testimonies, bearing witness to the experience of war and exile.

It is difficult viewing in more ways than one. Performed mostly in Arabic with some English, reading the translations shown at the side of the stage makes it hard to watch the women’s performance and facial expressions.

Their stories demand a response and challenge the audience.

There’s a shocking moment when it feels confrontational. “We are not here to entertain you!” one woman shouted, “I have an anger. When did killing become normal? Shame on you!”

For the most part, this raw production was extremely moving and their memories of homes they’d left in Syria - the scents of their homeland and happy family meals - allowed us to empathise. Descriptions of the most precious items they had managed to take with them on their exodus were particularly touching.

‘Queens of Syria’ is not ‘entertaining’ in any usual, enjoyable sense but it is powerful, emotional and important. This is a chance to see the real people behind the headlines and recognise them as human beings like us, with lost careers, separated families but real hopes and aspirations for the future.