Medea

Synopsis

Vulnerable outcaste, jilted lover and scheming sorceress. Without Medea's help, Jason would never have acquired the Golden Fleece, never have arrived safely back to claim his kingdom, never have had the success that followed, never have had his two beautiful sons. Such devotion surely deserves repayment.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 19 October 2012

How to do Greek tragedy in the modern world? With Medea, the goddess of fire who kills her sons as an act of revenge on her husband’s infidelity, the super-charged, completely recognisable emotions of her situation make the play more accessible than most.

And, as we read in the newspapers almost every day, mothers do still kill their children, usually to save them from a wicked world (violence and abuse tend to be the province of fathers).

Mike Bartlett’s new version of Euripides for Headlong, Watford Palace and the Glasgow Citizens removes the action from Ancient Greece to a new-build housing estate, where Rachael Stirling’s monstrous mum is a displaced middle-class woman in the grip of a terrible depression.

In its ferocity, absolute authority and sheer desperation, this is certainly the performance of Stirling’s career so far, and one that ironically echoes her own mother’s full-on high tragedy performance in the role ...

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Latest User Review

coral - 19 October 2012:

Brilliant show with great performances, including a humdinger from Ms Stirling. The set is fantastic and the excruciating special effects (how did they DO that?)make you squirm in your seat but the classical core still packs its emotional punch. Very clever....

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