Early in the book Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, a group of Athenian soldiers, taken prisoner during the Peloponnesian War, are made to perform Euripides’ play Medea for their captors. Some play the parts, and the rest are the chorus. They are starving, exhausted, and far from home. But when they step into the chorus, something shifts. They do not reenact the violence of the war. They’re just standing on the side, speaking calmly, giving shape to events that would otherwise feel uncontainable.