Medea (Tour – Newcastle)

Mike Barkett’s new version of Medea is spellbinding stuff.

The split level set changes swiftly from outside to inside and then we get to view the bedrooms and even the …Well we will not spoil the end, but it should play to packed houses every night.

In this version Medea is a modern day troubled housewife who is trying to cope after her husband leaves her and prepares for his forthcoming marriage. His future father –in-law owns the house and demands she leaves before the wedding, but finally agrees to allow her another fateful twenty-four hours. Medea claims to be a witch and at the wedding her gift to the couple means there are two terrible deaths at the reception, which one on the guests has filmed on her mobile phone.

Her young son, who never speaks, is used as a pawn and he watches as his Mother plunges her hand in to boiling water when preparing his dinner and places the cooked vegetables on his plate by hand.

Adam Levy plays ex husband Jason and provides a great sparring partner for Medea, brilliantly played by Rachael Stirling. In fact he is the only actor to come anywhere near Stirling’s magnificent performance. The other two female characters come off worst, as the actresses seem so out classed by Stirling.

The ending is very dramatic with the set revealing another hidden surprise.
Stirling should rightly win awards for this performance.