The first great war between the east and west is over. Hecuba, once queen of Troy, is widowed and enslaved by the conquering Greeks. When her captors demand that her daughter be sacrificed in honour of the great warrior Achilles, and she finds her only surviving son murdered, her mourning turns to a hunger for retribution. One of the most powerful dramas ever written, _Hecuba _is a vital examination of the psychology of the powerful and the powerless in time of conflict. Euripides' _Hecuba_, in this translation by Tony Harrison, premiered at the Albery Theatre in March 2005 as part of the RSC's London season.