Girl on an Altar: Hate sex in ancient Greece

Despite unbearable crimes, a marriage isn’t easy to let go of in Marina Carr’s play.

Eileen Walsh and David Walmsley in Girl on an Altar, an Abbey Theatre and KilnTheatre co-production on the Abbey Stage. Image by Pat Redmond.

Abbey Theatre - Abbey Stage, Dublin

★★★★☆

Agamemnon has a lot on his mind. An infuriatingly stubborn, violent Greek king in the Abbey Theatre and Kiln Theatre’s play Girl on an Altar, he looks on as his army fends off a bloody revolt. “Battlefields are like women. This one harder to win than I thought,” he says, sounding in search of a victory – whether in his reign or in his marriage.