Pocket Play Review: Lovers at war in Troilus & Cressida

Review by Julie Hammonds, author of Blue Mountain Rose: A Novel in Five Acts, published by Soulstice Publishing.

• The Play: Troilus & Cressida
• Hot Quote: “They say all lovers swear more performance than they are able.”  ~Cressida, who ought to know
• The Company: Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, Utah
• Run Dates: June 18–September 3, 2026
• The Stage: The Trojan War has ground down into stalemate, and people are starting to ask themselves, “Is Helen worth it?”
• Memorable for: the musical opener to the second half, which answers the question asked above with a resounding, “Yes!”
• The Scene-stealer Award goes to Lavour Addison as Ajax. When this warrior retrieved his headband from a hidden location (his pants) with the ritual solemnity of a martial artist, he brought down the house.

Pocket Play Review:

Rarely produced, Troilus and Cressida is sometimes classified as a history play, sometimes as a tragedy. In the First Folio, it was placed between those two sections, almost entirely without pagination. In this production, the Utah Shakespeare Festival brings this problematic play to life with creative production design, direction, and performance.

The play takes place years into the Trojan War. The Trojan warrior Paris has fled Greece with Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. The Greeks have laid seige to the town of Troy to get Helen back. The point of the play seems to be the futility of war and the ways it wrecks people’s lives.

I sometimes find history plays confusing ~ it’s hard to tell one noblemen from another as they vie for power or influence. This cast, which includes many Utah veterans, delivers the story with both clarity and (when appropriate) humor, making it easy to differentiate the courtly Trojans from the battle-weary Greeks and, within their ranks, to understand each character’s motivation.

The set design, costumes, and lighting also tell the story with creative skill. I especially admired the graffiti on the walls, including “Why are we here?” spray-painted in silver.

Is Helen worth the bloodshed? Played with winning sparkle by Emily Harris, Helen understands that the troops are a little sick of fighting for her. She does everything she can to buoy morale, including starring in a song-and-dance number straight from a Ginger Rogers film. The costume department went all out for Harris; when Helen emerges from her bubble bath in a nude bodysuit dripping with rhinestones, we share Paris’s awe and devotion.

The title characters are the ardent lover Troilus, a Greek soldier, and Cressida, his lukewarm girlfriend who is traded to the Trojan camp. I admired the passion with which Avery Michael Johnson conveyed Troilus’s devotion and anguish. Cressida (Brianna Miller) never seems deeply in love with Troilus, and the speed with which she moves in with a Trojan fighter is breathtaking. “Cressida: Is she worth it?” would be a suitable wall tag for their romance.

The entire cast is strong, each actor making their character’s motivations plain. I especially enjoy Blake Henri as Thersites, whose role is to help us understand the action at key points. Henri’s bass voice commands the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre every time he speaks. Lavour Addison’s Ajac and Walter Kmiec’s Achilles are played somewhat for laughs, which this play needs, and they deliver. The always insightful John Harrell gives us a memorable Pandarus.

I had never seen Troilus and Cressida performed live until now. It’s a problematic play that’s rarely done. I celebrate the Utah Shakespeare Festival for scheduling it and then casting such fine actors to play it. Troilus and Cressida may not be Shakespeare at his finest, but Utah’s creative theater-making and storytelling made it as fine as it could be.

In sum: This strong ensemble proves that even a weak play like Troilus and Cressida can be memorably told.

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Wherever you are, there’s probably a Shakespeare festival going on nearby. Summer is the time to see shows outdoors in the United States and Canada. Go, find a play and take part in this grand tradition.

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Author Julie Hammonds is on a quest to complete Shakespeare’s canon. In these pocket play reviews, she records brief impressions of each show she sees. Her love for live theater is evident on every page of Blue Mountain Rose. Learn more about the book at our home page.