Synopsis

Barker's the europeans leads us through a cross-section of war-ravaged Vienna, post-Turkish invasion of the late 1600's. This is a place where manners disappear with shops, the most genteel women will sell their bodies for a loaf of bread, and the blood of Turkish prisoners runs free. the emporer and empress want the normality of the past, but only Starhemburg, the army general and saviour of the city, realises that a new future must be forged, and sees Katrin - a young woman mutilated, raped and impregnated by the Turks - as being the agent for change. No Barker play is more relevant now than the europeans. It unapologetically reveals us as we are: primal beasts dangerously struggling to learn the love of oneself and finding the spirit to love one another.