Premiere US Premiere
Production Language English
Country of Origin Ireland
Description Medea, Euripides’ gripping tragedy of a woman scorned and the horrifying culmination of her fury, is brought into striking contemporary focus in Deborah Warner’s vivid new Abbey Theatre production. As realized by the ever-brilliant Fiona Shaw, Medea’s murder of her children is not an act prompted by insanity or monstrosity but the ghastly consequence of a confident, rational woman totally unhinged by rejection. This production is the latest in an impressive list of Warner/Shaw collaborations, and is their first to visit New York since the must-see staging of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land six years ago.
Using sorcery, deception, and murder, Medea enables her beloved Jason to steal the fabled Golden Fleece of Colchis. Upon their return to Greece, Jason sets his sights upon the crown of Corinth and informs his enamored wife that he is abandoning her for a more advantageous marriage to the princess. The distraught Medea is pushed to the brink by her deceitful spouse and sets upon her infamous revenge, punishing Jason in the most horrendous way she can imagine.
The production seamlessly introduces modern language and gesture, updating but never losing the essence of the 2,400-year-old work. Medea remains an utterly contemporary story of desire, ingratitude, and betrayal—underscored and made potent by Warner’s adaptation, which garnered England’s much-coveted Evening Standard Award for both Warner and Shaw, and an Irish Times/ESB Award for Best Actress for Shaw.
Identifier 2002f.00029
