“Troy Story”. Keble O’Reilly

Before I say anything about how good or bad this show was, let’s salute a company of students who have the sheer energy, bravery and ambition to mount not just a musical, but an original one. That in itself is a remarkable achievement. Experienced professional organisations with millions invested frequently cock it up on a massive scale. Carrie the Musical was mounted by no less a body than the Royal Shakespeare Company, spent four years in development, and closed after five performances. And Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark was so troubled that despite having a host of award-winning figures at the creative helm it had 182 previews, multiple rewrites, and at least six hospitalised actors. And it was critically panned.

So musicals aren’t easy.

Musketeer Productions aimed big with Troy Story, taking on the entire ten years of the Trojan War. Of course it’s not possible to turn the whole Iliad into a single evening of entertainment, so this is a kind of Highlights from Homer, and its passion for the source material comes shining through, both in its deep knowledge of the original and its sense of contemporary relatability, particularly with the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus.

When faced with something as vast as The Iliad it must be virtually impossible to decide what aspect of it to make the focus of your play. Ultimately, Troy Story settles on the parallel experiences of the two central couples: on one side Andromache and her husband Hector, and on the other Achilles and his lover Patroclus. This leads to the double tragedy of Hector killing Patroclus and Achilles killing Hector. That’s a brilliant creative choice – and it's such a relief to finally get away from that bloody wooden horse.

If only the show had focused on that central story with more single-minded determination, it could have been a tight, powerful and emotionally gripping evening. But Troy Story was three hours long. I’ve seen Hamlets that lasted less than three hours. Surely somebody, at some point, should have asked the question, Would this benefit from some editing?

Having said that, some vital elements were bizarrely excluded from the story. For example, we don’t see Paris seducing or kidnapping Helen. Why miss out the key reason for the whole war, when you’ve got so many scenes of Diomedes and Odysseus in conversation?

Turning to the music, I should once again preface my remarks with a note of massive respect for Lena Hayter. Composing a genuine score for a musical is a truly remarkable achievement, and many of the pieces were stirring and memorable (although I would have preferred them not to keep repeating the same phrase over and over again). I found it puzzling that after the opening couple of songs the first half was then devoid of any more until just before the interval. It made the permanently-on-stage orchestra look strangely irrelevant. In fact, why was the band on stage all the time anyway? They weren’t involved with the action, they weren’t being used as scenery, and they spent most of the time looking like they didn’t want to be seen. Either use them or hide them.

The music and action finally come together in perfect harmony, so to speak, towards the end of the second half, in the best scene of the whole show. This is where Patroclus argues with Achilles and decides to go out and fight disguised as his friend and lover. The action is conveyed through song almost operatically (rather than the song simply repeating what’s already been said in the scene). As such, it immediately gripped the entire audience, who burst into instant applause.

Overwhelmingly, my main criticism of Troy Story is that it needed cutting. I realise that, as a writer or director, you love the scenes you’ve created like your own offspring, and you want to keep them all. But it’s a shame that, unlike so many Greek heroes, the creators of this show weren’t able to kill their children.