Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre is currently showing the world premiere of Simon Armitage’s The Last Days of Troy.

Famous faces such as model Lily Cole as Helen of Troy will help draw the crowds, but the real star is Armitage’s play itself.

The language is lyrical, poetic and passionate, expertly capturing the high emotion and drama of war, sex, power and bloodlust, central themes running through the bloody battle between the Greeks and Trojans.

The story opens at a stalemate between the warring armies and after a 10 year siege, the Greeks are battle weary and demoralised.

Gods Zeus, Hera, Thetis and Athene step in to tip the balance of power in favour of the Greeks and the last days of Troy begin.

The men squabble, fight and die in increasingly bloody and barbaric ways, while the women are bartered for, fought over and passed around as spoils of war.

Jake Fairbrother was a bundle of enraged energy and violence as Achilles, while Colin Tierney as Odysseus and Simon Harrison as Hector gave gravitas and weight to the performance.

The scenes on Olympus between the Gods jarred a little, and Lily Cole’s performance as the enigmatic Helen could be described as aloof by some, wooden by others.

Despite these few niggles, the three hour running time flies by and the audience are constantly engaged with the action.

The Last Days of Troy is powerful, entertaining play which deserves to become a modern classic.

It runs at the Royal Exchange, Manchester until June 7 before transferring to London’s Globe Theatre on June 10.