The Bell Shakespeare Company's play Troilus+Cressida – Directed by Michael Bogdanov is an example of the many 're-skinned' Shakespearean plays that emerge out of obscurity to challenge social mores in modern society. Troilus+Cressida, based in the 10 year "war for a whore" (Helen – played by Helen Thompson) between the citizens of Troy and the Greeks, encompasses two contrasting notions of Love and War. These combine to create a world that does away with and is displaced from a normal world.
             Remarkably, this world of rampant voyeurism and unashamed decadence resembles that of our own. This sensation of deja vu is summed up when you realise what Bogdanov is trying to do. The use of camcorders by the characters – which are hooked to a bank of Televisions so that the audience can clearly 'perve' on intimate private moments, is a deliberate aim at society's infatuation with 'reality' TV. Even the Fight scene between Ajax and Hector conjure up images of tacky WWF-eskque programs that have a disturbingly popular following. Bogdanov achieves a sense of parody and satire at the emotionally comfortable distancing this has on society. The lack of commitment exists not only in the world of Troilus+Cressida but in our world as well. That is to say, desensitising has and is occurring en masse, as the world becomes adapted to the horrors of the world – including war.
             However, in spite of these very provocative ideas, Troilus+Cressida still leaves some things to be desired, like the many flat, almost embarrassing scenes the play goes through. One example is the main war scene, which seems a remarkably docile and complex event, instead of exploding with vehement and black male rage of war.
             Achilles (played by Marcus Eyre) is portrayed as an obese, Homosexual Couch potato, who actually spends a large amount of time in an easy chair, a can of beer at his hand, staring at...