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:

25 November 2003

In a lifetime of theatregoing you will not often - indeed you may never - encounter an eccyclema. In the last two months Yorkshire has seen three. In the Northern Broadsides Antigone we had two, masquerading as superannuated hospital trolleys, and now, in Euripides's Medea at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, we get the third, as the wall of Medea's apartment is collapsed to reveal the dead bodies of her two small sons upon their bier.

The eccyclema is a stage device in classical Greek tragedy for revealing the corpses to an audience which has been denied the actual spectacle of the dirty deed - it being axiomatic that Greek theatre displays not action but the before and after thereof. Mention of it here is not trivial, since Alistair Elliot translation of the play, originally made for Diana Rigg's performance at the Almeida in 1992, is here seen in a production which was fanfared in advance as marrying Greek theatre with t...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (195.92.168.169) - 26 November 2003:

I agree that most of the specifically African elements seem to have been dropped - this is in fact a far more traditional reading of the play than the versions recently staged by Theatre Babel and Actors of Dionysus. A riveting production marred only by the decision to allow one of the children to escape, only to be called back by Medea. This was an inept and irritating addition to the play....

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