As Temps Rise, Troy Falls: Summer Shakespeare Pits Hector v. Achilles

For two dozen MIT students, however, the Kresge Little Theater on campus will prove a perfect summer backdrop for Homer’s verse this month. On that stage, the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble’s production of Hector and Achilles takes up residence.

The play, published in April, is directed by Ted Eaton and makes its world premier at Kresge on July 26 for a six-show stand over the July 26-27 and August 1-3 weekends.

Ensemble chair Brian Remlinger, a senior, loves the play.

“It’s got everything. There’s lots of physical comedy from the Greeks in the play, and a much more serious emotional side from the Trojans,” he says. “You alternate back and forth…it tears at your heartstrings while you’re gasping from laughing so hard.”

The play follows Hector through his final days. Having killed Achilles’ best friend Patroclus during the siege on Troy, Hector prepares for his fate, knowing Achilles cannot be bested. In the meantime, Hector’s family and friends deliberate his seemingly inevitable death.

While other summer residents on campus threw Frisbees or talked science out in the Stratton Center courtyard one evening this week, Remlinger and his cast rehearsed their blocking and the rhythm of Eaton’s quick repartee. In one scene, second-year students Charlotte Swasey and Alana Lidawer pondered the logistics of the Trojan horse, wondering not only about its engineering prowess but also guessing at its stench inside.

In a later scene, seniors Christopher Smith and Salvador Esparza and actor Slava Tchoul traded barbs while playing farcical Greek soldiers in a Larry-Curley-Moe-inspired plot.

Offstage, production crews prepped four sets, props, and lighting schemes.

“It’s a fantastic company,” says Remlinger. “We did a lot of advertising off campus for actors because we wanted a full cast this summer. We ended up with four fantastic professional or soon-to-be professional actors from the area. Plus the MIT students, who are the cream of the crop of the Ensemble. Watching the veteran actors and students interact is a lot of fun.”