Medea
"The staging is brutal, leaving the performers nowhere to hide. They don’t need it: this flawless ensemble have created a raw masterpiece." - The Guardian ★★★★★
Throughout history few women have caused more ink to flow than Medea. In Simon Stone’s version, he combines the tragedy of Euripides with the true story of an American woman who killed her children in the nineties. A raw, exciting piece with plenty of dark humor.
Location Athens Epidaurus Festival
Run time 80 minutes
Genre theatre
Language Dutch
Medea
The successful doctor Anna is trying to organise her life again after her compulsory admission to a mental institute. After a failed attempt to poison her husband Lucas and her ensuing psychiatric recovery, she is determined to reunite her family. Prepared to forgive Lucas his affair with younger Clara, she is eager to do whatever it takes to build a new future together. But it soon transpires that her expectations aren’t shared by the people around her. She stands to lose everything she holds dear: her husband, her children, her career. The rebirth she yearns for deteriorates into a descent into the dark recesses of her mind.
Stone rewrites Medea into a recognizable, contemporary context. His characters are people of flesh and blood, successful forty-somethings with a career and a happy family life. The director retains the contours of the story, but poses the question who the old Greek heroes would be in our present society. He works with actors based on improvisations and in this way develops a completely new text alive with double layers and tragic misunderstandings.
His dialogue is razor-sharp and at times utterly hilarious, but with emotions and violence constantly raging underneath the surface.
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Marieke Heebink won the Theo d’Or 2015 for her portrayal of the main character.
Medea was the first play Australian director Simon Stone wrote and directed for ITA. He later directed Husbands and Wives (by Woody Allen), assembled themes and motifs from Ibsen's work into Ibsen House, and was inspired by Herman Heijermans's Op hoop van zegen for Flight 49.
Simon Stone about Medea
"The story of Medea is timeless. When a couple separate, one partner’s desire to hurt the other can go so far that they destroy the very thing they hold most dear: their children. In Medea, a woman takes the lives of her own sons. What would drive someone to such a deed? Is it the realization that everything she once meant to her husband is no more: that he has ‘traded her in for a younger model’?
Medea was once Jason’s muse, the woman who seduced and enchanted him. Now that she is older and no longer fertile, he abandons her. She has no part in his plans and ambitions. He shuns her and takes away her very purpose in life. She has reached the end of her tether. She refuses to give up her children and is prepared to take the most drastic action. Does she want to hurt him? Is she seeking revenge for his treachery, or are her actions a manifestation of her devotion? Perhaps she is simply mad.
Medea is about the power of a woman who once again experiences the exclusion she once felt in a dim and distant past."
REVIEWS
The Guardian
"The staging is brutal, leaving the performers nowhere to hide. They don’t need it: this flawless ensemble have created a raw masterpiece."
The Stage
"This is world-class theatre. A first-rate adaptation, by a first-class director, powered by first-class performances. Exquisitely, brutally bold."
What's on stage
"You don't go into a production of Medea under any allusion about how the play will end but Stone and his cast are brilliant at keeping you guessing how exactly they're going to get you there."
NRC
"Outstanding drama in contemporary adaptation Medea by Simon Stone."
Telegraaf
"This Medea won't let you go."
DIGITAL BROCHURE
Read more about the production's direction, scenography and costumes in our digital brochure.
Australian director, actor and writer Simon Stone (1984) is one of the most acclaimed theatre-makers in the international circuit.
In season 24/25 his directing of Medea will be reprised at ITA.
Credits
director, author Simon Stone
author Euripides
translation, dramaturgy Peter Van Kraaij
translation Vera Hoogstad
scenography Bob Cousins
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light design Bernie van Velzen
sound design Stefan Gregory
costumes An D'Huys
privat producer Joost en Marcelle Kuiper
with thanks to Fonds 21
Ivo van Hove adapted Who Killed My Father, by internationally acclaimed writer Édouard Louis, for the stage. Van Hove turned the very outspoken book into a monologue, especially for Hans Kesting.
