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Two of the performers singled out for special praise were Kadeem Pearse, who turned 17 only two weeks before the show opened on May 19, and Aisha Watkis, 19 - both first year students on the BTEC National Diploma course.
Kadeem played the brutal Greek general Menelaus, whose troops sacked Troy after the Trojan War and killed all the men. Aisha took the role of Cassandra, temple virgin daughter of defeated Trojan Queen Hecuba.
Aisha goes mad to learn that she is to join the other women and be taken to Greece as a slave or wife. As Aisha darted about the stage brandishing a burning torch, one onlooker said the scene was “a real tour de force, absolutely riveting.”
A staff member said: “As far as I am concerned it was a smash hit. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage for a moment. When the soldiers took the only remaining boy baby away to be killed, I was almost in tears.
“The acting, the set, the lighting, the music were all outstanding. CNWL shows are always good, but this was in a new league.”
● The designer and technical director of Women of Troy was professional actor/producer Goran Kostic, a Bosnian-born former performing arts student of CNWL in the 1990s. Goran remains a close friend of the College and comes back to Willesden to help with shows when he can.
Goran lives with his wife and two small sons in Toulouse, France, where his engineer wife works on the French Airbus project. His recent films have included Hannibal Rising and The Hunting Party (both 2007), gangster movie The Crew (2008) and the Liam Neeson thriller Taken, released early in 2009.
PICTURES SHOW:
Kadeem Pearse takes time out from playing Greek general Menelaus to help Maria Quissamba, playing the goddess Athena, to adjust her crown
Aisha Watkis brandishes a flaming torch in her role as the temple maiden Cassandra driven mad by the sacking of Troy
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