YORK College students are to stage the world premiere of a revived cycle of plays that has not been performed in its entirety for more than 2,000 years.

The year two Acting & Backstage Arts pupils will be stepping into the classical past to present Euripides's Trojan Wars trilogy, parts of which have been lost since 415BC.

The first two plays in the cycle exist only in fragments, setting a challenge to Greek translator and playwright David Stuttard, who you may recall from his days in York as co-artistic director of Greek theatre specialists Actors Of Dionysus in the 1990s up to 2002, when the company moved to Brighton.

For several years, David has been re-translating Euripides’s text from the few existing lines and re-creating the first two parts, Alexandros and Palemedes. These two new re-imaginings, together with the more familiar Trojan Women and the re-invented satyr Play Sisyphus, form the cycle The Trojans.

This revitalised trilogy will be told in four parts by the theatre students, starting with Alexandros, which tells the story of Paris, abandoned by his parents on the advice of the prophets, and his attempts to regain his rightful place in the Trojan Royal family.

Palemedes recounts the outsmarting of the Greek General Palemedes by the treacherous “hero” Odysseus beneath the walls of Troy.

Trojan Women takes the story up to the end of the ten-year siege of Troy and the fate of the women left behind and the satyr play Sissyphus is a short piece of slapstick, a rude and crude comedy that is part burlesque and part commentary on the other plays.

The Trojans Trilogy will be performed at the Alan Ayckbourn Theatre, York College, on June 25, 26 and 28 at 7pm and June 26 to 28 at 2pm. Tickets cost £8, concessions £6, on 01904 770495.

Please note: on account of adult themes, these plays carry a Parental Advisory warning.