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. 2607)

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Production Note : The text of a play is, for me, not a complete or 'universal' work, but something essentially transient - the playwright's solution to a problem, the problem of how to make the audience react in certain ways - whether it is an emotional reaction or an intellectual one ... In this adaptation, we have tried to go beyond the words on the page, to examine how Euripides was hoping to make his audience react, and to rebuild the text in such a way as to provoke those reactions from our audience within the context of a very different theatrical tradition to that in which 'Medea' was written'. (Source: Ed Richardson, Director's Notes from the Programme)

Aegeus episode omitted. Restrained production with no shrieks of children or signs of the murder.

Chorus of two women (sitting in and speaking from the audience].

Set: Black curtained surround to small studio theatre (playing space only about 12' x 10'). Stage bare apart from single wooden chair in centre. Simple lighting which illumined space but did not change.

Costume: Nurse dressed in black. Medea played by three people, each wearing blue girdle over black dress and black Alice Band on hair. Creon wore black with gold cummerbund as did Jason. The Chorus (two women, sitting in and speaking from the audience) came on stage at the end wearing casual modern dress (jeans).

Performance reviewed: 6th August 2001.

Medea was played by three people - Love, Revenge and Mask. Medea/Love spoke as a rather refined quiet woman who whispered her responses to Creon (who whispered to her the news of her exile). Medea/Revenge was intense and passionate, revelling in her catalogue of possible ways of revenge. Medea/Mask was thoughtful, her persona combining personal voice with reflection (e.g. in her recollection of when she saved Jason's life). All three Medeas stood still while the two Chorus members seated in the audience commented. The division of Medea's part had implications for the way in which the other figures directed their speech - for instance, Jason directed his speech of mitigation partly to Medea/Revenge and partly to the audience. The tri-partite division was also used to signal which aspect of Medea's personality was dominant at any one time over her actions. Medea's cunning recall of Jason was expressed by Revenge but there was also a contrapuntal effect when this was challenged by the Chorus and Medea was played by Love in her encounter with Jason, while Mask wept and Jason addressed her. The children's gifts to Glauce and her imagined death were narrated by the Chorus and Medea/Revenge and confirmed by the Nurse as Messenger. Medea/Mask reflected on the impact of the deaths and the need to kill the children. All three Medeas meditated on Jason as the cause of the death of the children. Finally, the Chorus came on to the stage and commented in whispers on the moral of the story. The lights faded as the whole cast assembled as a tableau. This restrained production sometimes lacked animation. In particular, Medea's sense of alienation and her association with sorcery were lost and the representation of Medea/Love as a surrendered wife lacked conviction. The psychological division of Medea's part into three did, however, produce some interesting interactions, particularly in the sequences with Jason, and the location of the Chorus as audience members provoked the audience to think about its own attitudes and judgements. The production was enthusiastically received by a near capacity audience.

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