Iowa City’s Riverside Theatre is entering the final week of performances for their run of The Cure at Troy, a play featuring a lesser-known character detailed in Homer’s Iliad.
The Iliad is not unlike the Bible or the works of Shakespeare in that its influence is so broad and has begotten so many other works of art that nearly everyone knows something about it, even if they’ve never read it. We’ve all heard of Helen of Troy, the Trojan Horse and the proverbial heel of Achilles. But like Shakespeare and scripture, there are also lesser-known characters and subplots.
The Cure at Troy, adapted from a book by Seamus Heaney, which in turn is an interpretation of a play by Sophocles, foregrounds one such character, Philoctetes. A contemporary of such heroes as Achilles and Ajax and a close friend of Hercules, he even lit the pyre at the latter hero’s death and inherited his bow and arrows. Philoctetes sailed for Troy at the start of the war with Odysseus, but was abandoned on the island of Lemnos when a snake bite to his foot rendered him disabled and suffering from seizures.
The Cure at Troy opens 10 years later when a Trojan oracle has prophesied that the Greeks cannot win the war without Hercules’ bow. Odysseus is sent to retrieve Philoctetes and the legendary weapon. Knowing that Philoctetes will not welcome his return, Odysseus brings along Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, to try to convince Philoctetes to sail for Troy or, failing that, to steal the bow.
Despite its classical inspiration, The Cure at Troy is not a sword-and-sandals epic, but an intimate study of the conflict between doing one’s job and doing what’s right. It explores the consequences of betrayal and, perhaps most importantly, whether it’s worth relinquishing a long-held and justified grievance in order to heal.
Riverside Theatre leans into the intimacy of the source material with a 90-minute show all taking place on the same minimalist set, which extends right up to the first row of seats. The cave Philoctetes has been living in is located offstage, behind the audience at stage left, and the actors frequently enter and exit by the aisles between the house seats. The costuming is equally simple, with Odysseus and his crew wearing attire reminiscent of mid-century naval uniforms. These choices reinforce the timelessness of the show’s themes and allow for the interactions between the characters to be the focus.
The intimacy of the small black box theater also means that you can see every nuance of the actors’ performances. Aaron Stonerook plays an amoral, distinctly unheroic Odysseus who proclaims that “scruples are an indulgence” and feels neither remorse for having abandoned Philoctetes in the first place nor an ounce of shame for returning to steal from him. Stonerook also manages to infuse his character with humor, preventing him from being so unlikeable that he’s unwatchable. Neoptolemus is played by Mark Worth with a combination of youthful eagerness to do his duty and doubt about the way he’s been asked to do it. His internal conflict is writ large on his face throughout the show.
Christina Goyneche, K. Michael Moore and Olivia Winters pull double duty as the chorus, whose exposition is interspersed throughout the play, and as the members of Odysseus’ crew tasked with assisting Neoptolemus in his mission. Tim Budd, a veteran of over 70 roles at Riverside Theatre, portrays the anguished Philoctetes with true humanity; his sadness at learning of the passing of his friends in the war, his bitterness over being betrayed when he was no longer useful and his longing to return home and see if his father is still alive are all heart-wrenchingly depicted.
Tim Budd shines in a scene from a performance of The Cure At Troy at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City on Wednesday, Jan 29, 2025. — photo by Ava Neumaier courtesy of Riverside Theatre 
Scene from The Cure at Troy — photo by Ava Neumaier courtesy of Riverside Theatre Scene from The Cure at Troy— photo by Ava Neumaier courtesy of Riverside Theatre
Despite the presence of the legendary Odysseus, this story is really about the relationship that arises between Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, and how their meeting forces them to reevaluate their convictions. Neoptolemus is the son of the now dead Achilles and clearly feels the weight of living up to his father’s legacy. He is both committed to the cause of winning the war, and aware of Odysseus’ unscrupulousness. Odysseus seized Achilles’ armor at his death and has been wearing it himself rather than passing it on to his heir.
Neoptolemus is nonetheless prepared to fulfill his assignment to convince Philoctetes to sail with them for Troy so that Hercules’ bow can deliver a victory for the Greek army. The plan begins to falter almost immediately when the crew discover that Philoctetes isn’t the raving maniac that Odysseus described, but a once revered hero who has retained his humanity and principles in the face of abandonment and suffering. Moore, Winters, Goyeneche and Worth expertly portray the slow creep of sympathy for Philoctetes’ plight; you can see the pity and increasing unease with their mission on their faces as Philoctetes describes what his life has been like on Lemnos.
Philoctetes takes immediately to Neoptolemus, projecting his love and regard for the father onto the son. His anger and sense of being betrayed all over again when he finds they’ve only come because he has something they need are painful to watch: one more crushing disappointment in a life that has held so many. Even when the prospect of having his wound healed is dangled before him, Philoctetes is unwilling to give aid to his betrayers and refuses to leave.
“The play asks big questions. It asks us what are we willing to do to win. And it asks a question that every democracy should ask … is the collective good worth doing something that’s wrong to an individual?” said Director Adam Knight, also Riverside’s producing artistic director. “Where are the lines between individual rights and collective rights and how do we reconcile those challenges?”
These increasingly current questions come to a head in the play’s final act — an act that involves divine intervention and a final reckoning between resentment and hope for Philoctetes. Riverside Theatre’s take on The Cure at Troy takes a legend best known for battlefield heroism and refines it into a modern-day allegory about duty, ethics and the price of healing.
Upcoming performances:
Iowa City | Riverside Theatre | Thurs-Sun, Feb. 6-9, various times
