![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Earlier this year I joined a zoom theater group, and last night we did Euripides’ Medea (translated by Michael Collier and Georgia Machemer) and it blew my tiny MIND. I haven’t experience a Greek drama since fourth grade, when the class across the way invited us to their production of Antigone, and it would be nice to see it someday performed by non-fourth-graders, not to cast aspersions on their production, which also blew my tiny mind.
BUT SO MEDEA. When the play begins, Medea has been divorced by her husband Jason, who is going to marry King Creon’s daughter. Medea is understandably VERY pissed, not least because if it weren’t for her, Jason wouldn’t be famous enough to marry any king’s daughter at all! He would in fact be dead, killed on his quest for the Golden Fleece, which he only achieved because Medea killed a bunch of people for him, not least her own brother.
And now that ungrateful wretch wants to divorce her! Medea has made SUCH a ruckus about Jason’s foul behavior that King Creon, concerned for the safety of his daughter, has decided to exile Medea and her sons.
Apparently King Creon is not quite concerned enough, however, because he agrees to let Medea stay one last day in order to get her affairs in order. Presumably he’s envisioning her selling her chickens or something, but for Medea, getting her affairs in order means one thing: VENGEANCE.
Honestly astonished that Jason thought that Medea, the brother-murderer, would quietly let him marry someone else, but patriarchy is a hell of a drug and Jason is an incredibly smarmy mansplainer who has the audacity to explain to Medea that when he left her for another woman, he was doing it for Medea. Jason will have more sons, plus connections in the royal palace, and will aid Medea’s own sons and also Medea herself! Or at least it WOULD have if Medea hadn’t gotten so MAD and gotten herself and her sons exiled.
Medea takes advantage of her one day to prepare for exile by murdering Jason’s new bride with a dress that poisons her then sets her own fire (which also kills King Creon as he embraces his daughter’s corpse), then murders her own sons so that Jason will spend the rest of his life crushed in grief. She sighs (paraphrasing), “It sucks that I have to murder my own sons.”
The chorus, which sometimes seems to consist of Medea’s neighbors (generally supportive of her rage! Less supportive of child murder!), but also occasionally is just disembodied commentary on the action: “You don’t HAVE to.”
Medea: “No, I’m gonna.”
Exit Medea! Murder off stage! (“Mother, no!” wail Medea’s sons.) Enter Jason, who has just seen his bride set aflame! “This woman has destroyed my life!” he bellows, intent on confronting Medea.
At which point Medea reappears. She is flying A CHARIOT PULLED BY DRAGONS. She is carrying her son’s corpses with her, so Jason can’t even have the comfort of burying them. “How does it feel with my teeth in your heart!” Medea gloats, as Jason howls impotent imprecations. And away she flies to Athens, where she has already prepared a refuge for herself, with a friend who has sworn a solemn oath by the gods that he’ll look after her no matter what! (He was not aware of the child-murdering plans at that point.)
Then the chorus asks the audience:
“Think of the story we’ve just listened to:
Who won? Who lost?”
This drama of bloody revenge ends with a book club reading guide! Amazing. AMAZING.
BUT SO MEDEA. When the play begins, Medea has been divorced by her husband Jason, who is going to marry King Creon’s daughter. Medea is understandably VERY pissed, not least because if it weren’t for her, Jason wouldn’t be famous enough to marry any king’s daughter at all! He would in fact be dead, killed on his quest for the Golden Fleece, which he only achieved because Medea killed a bunch of people for him, not least her own brother.
And now that ungrateful wretch wants to divorce her! Medea has made SUCH a ruckus about Jason’s foul behavior that King Creon, concerned for the safety of his daughter, has decided to exile Medea and her sons.
Apparently King Creon is not quite concerned enough, however, because he agrees to let Medea stay one last day in order to get her affairs in order. Presumably he’s envisioning her selling her chickens or something, but for Medea, getting her affairs in order means one thing: VENGEANCE.
Honestly astonished that Jason thought that Medea, the brother-murderer, would quietly let him marry someone else, but patriarchy is a hell of a drug and Jason is an incredibly smarmy mansplainer who has the audacity to explain to Medea that when he left her for another woman, he was doing it for Medea. Jason will have more sons, plus connections in the royal palace, and will aid Medea’s own sons and also Medea herself! Or at least it WOULD have if Medea hadn’t gotten so MAD and gotten herself and her sons exiled.
Medea takes advantage of her one day to prepare for exile by murdering Jason’s new bride with a dress that poisons her then sets her own fire (which also kills King Creon as he embraces his daughter’s corpse), then murders her own sons so that Jason will spend the rest of his life crushed in grief. She sighs (paraphrasing), “It sucks that I have to murder my own sons.”
The chorus, which sometimes seems to consist of Medea’s neighbors (generally supportive of her rage! Less supportive of child murder!), but also occasionally is just disembodied commentary on the action: “You don’t HAVE to.”
Medea: “No, I’m gonna.”
Exit Medea! Murder off stage! (“Mother, no!” wail Medea’s sons.) Enter Jason, who has just seen his bride set aflame! “This woman has destroyed my life!” he bellows, intent on confronting Medea.
At which point Medea reappears. She is flying A CHARIOT PULLED BY DRAGONS. She is carrying her son’s corpses with her, so Jason can’t even have the comfort of burying them. “How does it feel with my teeth in your heart!” Medea gloats, as Jason howls impotent imprecations. And away she flies to Athens, where she has already prepared a refuge for herself, with a friend who has sworn a solemn oath by the gods that he’ll look after her no matter what! (He was not aware of the child-murdering plans at that point.)
Then the chorus asks the audience:
“Think of the story we’ve just listened to:
Who won? Who lost?”
This drama of bloody revenge ends with a book club reading guide! Amazing. AMAZING.
