Women of Trachis: New Jersey Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association

Theater of War Productions will present scenes from Sophocles’ Women of Trachis on Zoom, featuring professional actors and a chorus of hospice and palliative care nurses and home health aids, to help frame a powerful conversation about the challenges and opportunities of witnessing suffering and death and of caring for patients at the end of their lives.

This special event, hosted by the Northern New Jersey Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association and Samaritan Life Enhancing Care— is the fifth installment of The Nurse Antigone series, which presents dramatic readings from ancient Greek plays as a catalyst for guided discussions about the past, present, and future of nursing. Using Sophocles’ ancient play about the death of the great hero Heracles to create a vocabulary for talking about death and dying, the project aims to generate compassion, awareness, connection, and much-needed healing, while celebrating and advocating for palliative care and hospice nurses at this critical time.

Sophocles’ Women of Trachis tells the story of Heracles—the strongest of all Greek heroes—who has been unintentionally poisoned by his wife, Deineira, after she discovers that he has fallen in love with a younger woman. In an attempt to win back her husband’s affection, she mistakes a lethal toxin, which was given to her by a dying centaur years ago, for a love potion. Deineira sends Heracles a robe dipped in the liquid. When Heracles puts on the robe it immediately eats through his skin, muscle tissue, down through his bones to the marrow. Heracles falls to the ground, clutching his sides, crying out in pain, calling for his teenage son, Hyllus, to come to his aid and to help him put an end to the seemingly endless waves of pain.

Featuring performances by Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland), David Denman (The Office), Craig Manbauman (Nurse, Poet, US Air Force Veteran), Charlaine Lasse (BSN, RN, RNC-NIC, Vascular Access Team, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center), Angie Meraviglia (BSN, RN, Critical Care Nurse), Dawn Fort (CHHA, LMT, Certified Home Health Aid, Licensed Massage Therapist), Sharon A. Campbell (RN, MSHS, CSN, CCDS, Oncology Nurse Navigator).

Co-presented by Theater of War Productions, the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and the Resilient Nurses Initiative - Maryland.

Supported by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

Support for our digital programming is provided, in part, by the Mellon Foundation.

NNJ HPNA would like to thank their sponsors: Dr. Jessica Zitter Fund, Kemenczy Law, Norris McLaughlin P.A., Samaritan Life-Enhancing Care.

The Women of Trachis will take place on Zoom Webinar and can be accessed on personal devices. The event Zoom link will be distributed via email and available to registered attendees starting 2 days prior to the event.

This event will be captioned in English.

All of Theater of War Productions' events follow the same format:

• The performers will read the text.
• Community panelists will kick off the discussion with their gut responses to what resonated with them across time
• We will open the discussion to the audience, facilitated by Bryan Doerries. During the discussion, please raise your hand using the button at the bottom center of the screen. If called upon, please accept the invitation to be promoted to speak and you will be visible and heard by the entire audience for the duration of your comments. If you would prefer not to be seen, please disable your video.