{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/68e4c0be965488b63a6987c5/6a7d5d147cf3c58886db6c18?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Inbox: Hecuba, Exile and Coming Home | Arwa Omaren","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/68e4c0be965488b63a6987c5/1786600654160-9bb74494-15b0-4a4d-bb51-595b2abb61aa.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>What happens to a person when the country they were born in decides they were never really from there?</p><p><br></p><p>What does a play about the women of a sacked city, written 2,400 years ago, have to say to an actress walking out of Syria on foot?</p><p><br></p><p>And how do you stand on a stage in Edinburgh and make an audience laugh about the worst thing that ever happened to you?</p><p><br></p><p>At the Edinburgh Fringe, Peter Frankopan meets Arwa Omaren, whose one-woman show sets her own escape from Syria inside the story of Hecuba, Queen of Troy — along with William Stirling and Charlotte Eagar, who have spent a decade staging Euripides with refugees.</p><p><br></p><p>Arwa Omaren found out she was a refugee at twelve, in a playground fight in Damascus. She graduated top of her class from Syria's leading drama school in 2011, signed a television contract, and then the war took all of it. She walked for five weeks through the mountains of Kurdistan. Britain granted her asylum, then she was evicted, and she slept on the street with her dog. Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? is what she made of it. Euripides wrote the first play about refugees in 415 BC, the year after Athens massacred the people of Melos. Twenty-four centuries later it is still the play that fits.</p><p><br></p><p>Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? runs at the Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh Fringe, until 31 August: edfringe.com</p><p>More on the Trojan Women Project: trojanwomenproject.org</p><p>Peter has written about the play at peterfrankopan.substack.com</p><p><br></p><p>Join <strong>Legacy Plus</strong> for bonus episodes, early access, Q&amp;A's, fewer adverts and more.</p><p><strong>legacy.supportingcast.fm</strong></p><p><br></p><p>[0:00] Peter at the Fringe, and a performance he could not stop thinking about</p><p>[3:23] Oxfam, 2013, and the Greek tragedy that turned out to be about refugees</p><p>[9:50] Who Hecuba is, and why a queen reduced to nothing is the right story for now</p><p>[16:18] A playground fight in Damascus, and the day Arwa found out she was a refugee</p><p>[17:24] Five weeks walking, and the paperwork that told her she belonged nowhere</p><p>[33:13] Jacko: the dog she left behind in Syria, and the charity that brought him back</p><p><br></p><p>Stay connected with Legacy:</p><p>Instagram: @originallegacypodcast</p><p>TikTok: @legacy_productions</p><p><br></p><p>Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:</p><p>Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com</p>","author_name":"Original Legacy Productions"}