Medea

[osprey_archer]

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.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

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

That is SUCH a completely bananas choice for a fourth-grade class play?? Now I desperately want to see Antigone performed by fourth-graders...

Anyway, a zoom theater group sounds super fun! It is like, a virtual table-read situation?

[osprey_archer]

No idea about the thought process behind Antigone as fourth grade play! It made a big impression on me, though. Definitely a story to chew over.

And yes, pretty much a virtual table-read situation. Sometimes people will wear little costumes - when I'm playing multiple characters I like to have different hats.

[skygiants]

The little hats are incredible every time.

[cyphomandra]

That sounds so cool!

A few years back I saw Kate Mulvany’s Medea, which is contemporary and from the pov of the two boys, who are playing in their room while the adults argue outside; Medea herself comes in three times, killing them on her last visit. The child actors were amazing and the whole thing was very effectively disturbing.

(I’ve also seen Neil LaBute’s Medea Redux monologue, also a contemporary version but with Mormonism; however staging plus seat choice meant that the actress was about 2m away from me and delivered the whole thing directly to me, which was terrifying in an entirely different way)

[osprey_archer]

Oh, gosh, that DOES sound super disturbing. Well, both of them really, but especially the first one with the focus on the child actors!

[littlerhymes]

Euripides always goes the hardest and his Medea goes the hardest of all. Oh to exit in a chariot pulled by dragons - the dream!!!

[osprey_archer]

Medea is a fascinating mixture of #goals and "Oh my God what is wrong with you?" Still want the chariot pulled by dragons though!

[kore]

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.)

Most badass theatrical exit ever.

[osprey_archer]

I'm just imagining the original Athenian audience watching all of this open-mouthed. Wow! Just wow!

[asakiyume]

Euripides and Shakespeare in a writing workshop together. Euripides pulls out the "exits in a chariot pulled by dragons." Shakespeare quietly tears up "exits chased by a bear"

[skygiants]

One of the things I forgot to talk about but thought was SUPER interesting is how the play gets framed first of all by the Nurse and the Tutor, who have this very stressed-out ordinary-person perspective on the events, and then as soon as Medea and Jason and the Chorus enter they don't get a chance to talk to each other about it any more; idk, I just thought that was an interesting and unexpected way to set up the story: the Nurse being wearily like 'ohhhhh boy she's gonna overreact again' and then OH BOY DOES SHE.

[osprey_archer]

It's an efficient way to motor through a lot of set-up. We don't need to see Medea wailing and gnashing her teeth over losing Jason; the nurse just tells us about it, so we can get right to the avenging. (An ancient Greek playwright bursts into a modern-day writing workshop: "Why show when you can tell?" He is booed out of the classroom.)

I love how the Nurse is apparently just STANDING there through Medea's first "gotta kill my kids" monologue and just... does nothing. I mean, I guess there is nothing she can do, given that she's a slave and Medea is, well, Medea. But damn.

[asakiyume]

(Honestly though, I am so with that playwright, sometimes.)

Maybe the nurse is like, with those two as parents, I don't want to see what these guys would be like as adults, this is All for the Best. Or maybe she just has a healthy sense of self preservation. The shirt that kills you and burns you up shows that extra special attention to revenge detail that you really don't want focused on YOU.

[osprey_archer]

Judicious and well-deployed telling is an underrated skill in modern American story-telling! You don't even have to go back to the ancient Greeks: Jane Austen uses it to great effect. It helps if there's a sense of a personality telling us these things: the Nurse in Medea, or Jane Austen's ironic narrator. Telling can be very engaging as long as there's some emotional impetus behind it!

Yes, I'm sure the nurse is well aware of what Medea would do to anyone who tried to cross her plans, and also well aware that she probably wouldn't manage to save the boys anyway (say what you will about Medea, but she finishes what she starts!), so she's not getting in the way of another poisoned dress. Maybe now that Medea's leaving Corinth, the nurse will finally get a new boss?

[asakiyume]

Greek tragedies are so dial-turned-to-eleven. They are MADE to blow minds. And no one is as hardcore as Medea--not for want of trying, though!

[osprey_archer]

It's just hard to beat "I killed your bride, your would-be-father-in-law, AND our children! How do you like them apples???"

[asakiyume]

Yeah, it's like "What playwright were you in an intensity duel with, Euripides?! YOU WON, ALREADY, OK????"

[thawrecka]

Medea is one of my favourite stories. ♥

[osprey_archer]

It's so intense! Just great watching it ratchet up.