Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Euripides’s Medea, one of the most terrifying murder stories of all time, was enormously popular in the ancient world. It premiered in 431BCE and is still regularly performed, attracting great actors.
Dominic Cooke, who uses Robinson Jeffers’ adaptation, directs a splendid revival in this beautiful new theatre. Sophie Okenendo and Ben Daniels head the cast and they are excellent. The production, played out in the round, feels ancient and modern and timeless.
Medea, wife of Jason and mother of his two young children, is ditched by him for a younger woman. Ambitious for his political future, he has married King Creon’s daughter. She takes a terrible revenge. She murders Jason’s young wife and then kills her two boys.
Medea is despised and humiliated because she is a foreigner. Athenians think they are the only civilised people in the world and that all foreigners are barbarians. They think she is a witch and evil. But Okenedo’s Medea is no monster. It is Jason’s action which flips her. She is victim rather than evil.
Ben Daniels, who, mesmerisingly, circles and re-circles the stage in slow motion before each entrance, plays all the men in her life – Jason, Tutor, Creon and Aegeus – suggesting that men are all the same. Men would be wise not to underestimate this formidable woman.
Greek tragedy is always good value and, with such actors as Sophie Okenedo and Ben Daniels, the stakes are raised high. Go. Medea is a must-see for all serious theatregoers who love classical theatre.
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