Troilus and Cressida: Cut the cast… cut the script…

A couple of days back, I floated the idea of cutting the cast for a hypothetical production of Troilus and Cressida. Today, let’s take a look at the text and where it can be cut.

The play is a long one, 3368 lines. Longer than all the other problem plays. Third longest play of the Canon, behind only Hamlet and Richard III. For any production, it needs cutting and trimming.

Given my focus on the undercutting of heroic and romantic expectations (and the use of Pandarus as a tragic hero), let’s take a look at the major cuts first…

I think much of the parade of Trojans (I.ii.174-236) can be cut. Visual spectacle can be lost here, especially with neither a full cast nor a focus on social strata.

I’m torn on Act Two, Scene Two’s Trojan debate. On the one hand, I really don’t think this scene drives the plot/narrative forward. On the other, I’ve already lost Trojan content with the Act One, Scene Two cuts, and I’d hate to lose a great appearance by one of the few women in the play (Cassandra’s dramatic entrance and prophecy). Maybe we leave it in with severe trimming. Maybe we use just her lines (II.ii.101-2, 104-12), then move them to after Act Two, Scene Three as a kind of Act Three Chorus. That way it leads from a fully Greek Act Two into a Trojan-centric first two scenes of Act Three. In a sense, this makes her a fourth commentator in the play.

I think much of the second half of Act Two, Scene Three, with the repetitious Greek hate-fest on Achilles, should be judiciously trimmed or jettisoned altogether.

A lot of the last portion of Act Three, Scene Three’s ending (with the “performance” of Achilles and Patroclus) can be lost with little detriment to the play as a whole.

A great deal of the Trojan/Greek glad-handing in Act Four, Scene Five (the section between Ajax and Hector’s aborted bout, and Hector and Achilles’ trash-talk-off) can be safely jettisoned, I think.

The vast majority of Act Five, Scene One, can be lost. The only portion that needs to be saved, I think, is Diomedes’ begging off accompanying Hector (so that he can go to Cressida), Ulysses and Troilus following him to Calchas’ tent, and Thersites’ commentary on it all. All of which can be integrated into the end of Act Four, saving us over 80 lines.

Those are the chainsaw cuts. As for the scapel trims, basically, every scene could lose a line here, a line there. As an example, here are some possible trims in Act Five, Scene Three:

These excised lines don’t push the narrative forward in any meaningful way.

These cuts push the pace. The two partial lines (Andromache’s “To hurt by being just.” and Cassandra’s “Unarm, sweet Hector.”) work well as a shared antilabe line, marking their solidarity on the issue.

Unnecessary half-line because of the Andromache/Cassandra antilabe.

The loss of these lines focuses the speech on Hector’s ego… important for the cause of his demise later.

The cut lines allow for Troilus to gain some verbal momentum.

These excised lines contain awkward phrases, and are easily lost.

The two cut lines are rhetorically interesting, but as far as basic meaning of the speech, they are both tangential.

Losing these lines pushes the pacing of the scene.

The concept of honor and faith are represented well enough in the speech that follows.

The cut line makes a nice statement, but is ultimately unnecessary.

This cut focuses the speech on Pandarus’ health issues, foreshadowing his prophecy of death at the end of the play.

Big cuts and little trims allow us to focus on concepts and pushes the speeches forward, all for clarity and a better experience for the audience.