Classical Receptions in Drama and Poetry in English
from c.1970 to the Present  

Project Publications
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A Democratic Turn

2009 Democratic Turn Eseminar

1998-2008 Archived topics

Medea

A Review by Professor Lorna Hardwick

(For other reviews of Medea please see database no. 2587)

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Performance reviewed : 12th August 2001.

The set design and staging followed closely the inaugural production in Glasgow 2000 (see DB no. 2521). However, following Lochhead's notes in her introduction to the published text this production was perhaps more self-aware in its use of language and accent - 'It was only after seeing the play in performance here in Glasgow this Spring that it struck me the conventional way of doing Medea in Scotland until very recently would have been to have Medea's own language Scots and the, to her alien Corinthians she lived under, speaking as powerful 'civilised' Greeks, patrician English. That it did not occur to me to do other than give the dominant mainstream society a Scots tongue and Medea a foreign-speaking-English refugee voice must speak of a genuine in-the-bone increased cultural confidence here.' (Liz Lochhead, Foreword to 'Medea', June 2000, Nick Hern Books).

The production also produced linguistic and vocal differentiation between social groups, with the Nurse and Tutor speaking Scots and Creon including some Scots words at points of heightened emotion whereas the accented English Jason, the non-Corinthian Greek, varied between Scots and mid-Atlantic. All the Greeks/Scots, including the children, were dressed in black in contrast to Medea's flamboyant red. The Chorus spoke English with a variety of accents to represent women of all times and all ages, classes and professions. All the characters except Medea were unaware of the Chorus which communicated only with Medea and the audience. Like the Chorus in Seamus Heaney's 'The Cure at Troy' (see DB nos. 214, 839, 1109), the Chorus here made specific modern links and allusions (e.g. to the police as bringing news of disasters). At the time of this 2001 Fringe performance the audience was particularly aware of the situation of refugees (following the recent racist murder of a Kurdish asylum seeker in Sighthill, Glasgow) and this perhaps added an extra layer of modern resonance to the main focus of gender conflict in the production.

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