The Sea as a Dramatic Space: Jonathan Kent’s Staging of Euripides’ Hecuba

Abstract This article examines Jonathan Kent’s 2004 production of Euripides’ Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden (London), with a focus on the scenographic use of water. In Euripides’ tragedy, the sea is not merely a backdrop but a force driving the action, from the delay of the Achaean fleet to the discovery of Polydorus’ corpse and Hecuba’s revenge. Kent, with designer Paul Brown, translated this centrality into a stage flooded with water and sand, evoking the Thracian shoreline. The set shaped the actors’ movements and reimagined Euripides’ sea imagery in powerful stage pictures, such as Eddie Redmayne’s Polydorus emerging ghost-like from the water. More than a striking device, the aquatic space became a metaphorical medium where moral categories dissolve, especially in the confrontation between Hecuba and Polymestor.