Reviews

Waiting for Neo

- basically just trash-talking duels for a whole play
- fleshing out mythic "side characters" = essential myth-head text
- Hermione is the best Paranoid Teen Drama Queen in all literature?
- most dislikable chorus EVER ("It is sad to see / Anyone in such grief, even a foreigner")
- I found this jarring because the chorus is usually meant to be/guide us, the audience: can’t tell if Euripedes is saying he doesn’t like me or not, sad
- love how the female battle of wills (Andromache vs Hermione) gets taken up by the male heroes (Peleus vs Menelaus) and finally blows up into violence in a really strange and displaced way (Neoptolemus and.... Orestes?!?)
- having depictions of the Trojan War resurface as traumatic baggage in a family dispute is ace
- gets deep into politics of marriage: both as male-male bonds of alliance and exchange, and as lived reality of women
- rampant misogyny hasn't aged well
- everyone’s constantly talking about the absent king Neoptolemus, and having all the drama hinge on a character who isn’t there (and spoiler who never turns up) feels weirdly modern
- it also makes the space, the Phthian Palace of Peleus, feel like a cross between Elsinore from Hamlet and Manderley from Rebecca – like a regal cage filled with worry and distant men
- super dramatic surprise twists: most exciting but least resonant Euripides i've read so far
- also has the best characters (though all are dislikable)

saammmsmithhh's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

As to be expected from Euripides, a fabulous play which contains some timelessly fantastic pieces of writing.

nugat's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

grauspitz's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This play was wild. You could easily base an entire novel off the contents of this play alone.

Various themes are explored from the fragility of the 'pan-Greek' mindset to the perceived differences between the Greeks and the Trojans.

And as it would turn out, Menelaus truly is no better than his brother and this side of him emerges in this story. His actions concerning the Trojan war are scrutinized and used against them as they should be.

oblomov's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

After the fall of Troy, Andromache was given as concubine prize to Achilles' son, Neoptolemos. Years later, she's bore him a son and fell in love with her rapist master (as they always seem to do in these old Greek stories), but has caught the ire of her lover's childless wife, Hermione. While Neoptolemos is away from home, she is wrongly accused of using sorcery to make her 'rival' barren, so Andromache sends away her son while she takes refuge in a temple, lamenting her fate and the vengeful, murderous intentions of Hermione and her family.

This is one bizarre clusterfuck of a story. First we get a very poignant and sympathetic portrayal of Andromache, trapped and desperate, who has done literally nothing to deserve the hatred she recieves. It's a potent example of just how messed up Ancient Greek morality was, and Euripides openly criticises the problems of a man nonchantly sharing his bed, while also championing the plight of the usually forgotten war victim. There's real suspense here, made worse when Andromache's son is found by Hermione's Father, Menelaus, who brings him back and threatens to kill mother and child. Neoptolemos' grandad, Peleus, shows up just in the nick of time, rhetorically bitch slapping the King of Sparta, and the pair argue over whether to spare or condemn the innocent Andromache.

It is at this point that Euripides throws a brick on the accelerator.

Spoiler

Peleus wins the argument and both Andromache and her son escape. The play should have stopped here, as that's her plot finished, but it keeps going: Hermione, rightly concerned her husband will be pissed at her for trying to kill his lover and child, tries to off herself. But then Orestes just randomly shows up, presumably still trying to get his mother's blood stains out of his toga, steals Hermione away to be his bride and kills her husband off stage. This has no notable consequences for Orestes, since apparently he has two free stamps on his 'be a murderous arsehole' card, and the insurance covers Menelaus and Hermione, who both get off scott free for their shitty actions. And THEN Peleus, sobbing that both his son and Grandson have been murdered by utter bastards, has the very clouds split apart and thus descends his wife, Thetis the sea nymph in all her sparkling, watery glory, to take the wretched sod to Olympus to see his progeny again. The End.

I mean, wow, that is a lot crammed into one story, it's a mess. It's still good, the new characters and random events keep you on your toes, but the Hermione subplot and the death of

Spoiler

Neoptolemos

could have been a fleshed out tragedy in its own right. This whole play could, and should, have been longer or split into a two parter, as there's just too much to digest, the moral questions disappear to make way for action or self-pitying sobs, and our title character is gone for the entire second half.
If you want a Greek play that's goes off the rails and does not bloody stop, then Andromache is most certainly it.

More...