A modern-day version of Euripides' anti-war play, The Trojan Women has been rewritten and is set in a mother-and-baby unit of a prison. 

The war is over. Beyond the prison walls, Troy and its people burn. Inside the prison, the city’s captive women await their fate. Stalking the antiseptic confines of its mother and baby unit is Hecuba, the fallen Trojan queen, whilst the pregnant Chorus is shackled to her bed. 

But their grief at what has been before will soon be drowned out by the horror of what is to come, as the Greek lust for vengeance consumes everything – man, woman and baby – in its path.

This caustic and radical new version of Euripides’ classic tragedy comes from one of the UK’s most exciting young poets, Caroline Bird. It is an intense, gripping look at what happens when the world collapses.

"'Some of the writing is pin-sharp - does away with reverence, rips up the rulebook' - The Telegraph 'This fine new modern-day version by poet Caroline Bird is set in the mother-and-baby unit of a prison. It's an ingenious idea of sparkling sensitivity,' - Evening Standard Caroline Bird's new version has both bleak beauty and sardonic humour.' - The Financial Times"

Caroline Bird has been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize twice & has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002), the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, and the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011. Caroline’s poems have been published in several anthologies, including Oxford Poetry 2008, and are published regularly in PN Review, Poetry Review, The North magazine. A member of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, Caroline is also a playwright. In 2011, Caroline’s contribution was included in Bush Theatre's project Sixty-Six Books.