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

Project Publications
(including Archived Conference papers)

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. 2606)

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Set: The performance was given in a small studio space, bounded by black curtains. Playing space end-on to audience. Some entries/exits made through audience. Stunning sound effects/lighting for storm sequence at the beginning. Spot lighting used to focus audience attention, e.g. on Medea as she reflected on killing the children. A black curtain screen was held up and lowered as she entered the children and after the murders it again concealed her with just a white, horned, mask visible above it.

Costume : Chorus wore platformed sandals for the opening sequence, subsequently were barefoot. White face make-up masks, white sashes and grey/green/brown robes. Later the Chorus wore black trousers and white tops and carried ropes to try and enmesh Medea. Jason wore wide grey trousers and this and his dishevelled hair provided a vivid contrast with Medea. Medea wore an elaborate oriental head-dress with dangling jangly medallions and gold robes. Initially her hair was long and black. Glauke wore striking red. Children in white/cream robes. As Medea's resolve to kill the children firmed she emerged with the head-dress of a horned devil and her hair turned white with red eye make-up emphasising her grief. At the end, she became a red cloaked figure holding a face mask in front of her and addressing the audience in English.

Language/Sound : Spoken sequences in Japanese, with formalised non-verbal utterances (including laughter). Final address to the audience by Hiroshi Jin in English, covering cross-overs in identities (male/female; child/old man; resolution of alienation between performers and audience; transcending of race difference; performer as empty, void of feeling, a receptacle for the feeling of others). Then cast introduced to audience by name. Each made a brief comment on his/her interests.

Movement/music: Variety of traditional Noh and modern adaptations, including jazz dance. Spectacular representation of Glauke's death agonies. Trumpets, horn, drums as Medea writhed in agony after killing the children. The Chorus took on the guise of Furies, sticking darts in Jason as he staggered out, whimpering, through the audience. A final lament dance was performed by three Chorus members, dressed in white.

Review: This was a visually and physically stunning production which transfixed a capacity audience (c.60). The inter-relationships between traditional and modern techniques and movement were aesthetically coherent and had a dynamic effect on the audience. The transitions between melodrama and tragedy and the emotional impact of the tenderness of gesture and the unchanging of the full face mask as the children's death approached was marked by gasps from the audience. The monologue-to-audience at the end was probably a mistake since the cross cultural impact of the representation of the myth needed no justification or explanation and the reduction of tension among the audience was too abrupt. The contrasts between the approaches to the three versions of Medea on show at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe demonstrate the range of the myth's cultural impact (see theatre babel, DB no 2593 and Outlook Productions, DB no 2607).

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