Skip to main content

Medea

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow

3 stars


Mike Bartlett’s contemporary version of one of the most unforgiving tragedies of all time is a curious beast. On the one hand, this suburban English redux taps into tragically familiar stories of modern-day infanticide. On the other, there’s a glib gallows humour at play which becomes a form of self-protection, as Rachael Stirling strides through her red-brick des-res with the mono-maniacal fury of the original woman scorned.  

 

Stirling’s Medea is a flame-haired posh girl on a new build estate who saved upwardly mobile rough diamond Jason from drowning. Unable to deal  with Medea’s bolshie ways any longer, Jason has left her for a younger  and, as Jason admits, “nicer” model, while Medea is left with only her  traumatised little boy and impending homelessness to deal with.  

 

While no-one would blame Medea for what she does after being treated so  shabbily, her pair of busy-body gal pals and a tongue-tied brickie  looking on imploringly are only likely to make her madder. Especially  when sound-tracked by a swell of strings so sweeping as to more  resemble something out of the 39 Steps.  

 

Such imbalances may jar, but they also illustrate just how out of whack  Medea is in Bartlett’s own production for Headlong in association with  the Citizens and Watford Palace. Stirling is a force of nature as she  spars with Adam Levy’s Jason. It’s the other characters who remain  indifferent. Medea and Jason may tear lust-driven emotional chunks out  of each other, but there’s a sense that everyone else onstage is too  disconnected to care in a TV style reworking which only serves to make  Stirling’s Medea appear more powerful than ever.  

 

The Herald, October 4th2012 

 

ends

 

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...
1 comment
Read more

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Billy Elliot The Musical

Edinburgh Playhouse Five stars A big National Coal Board sign looms large at the opening of Lee Hall and Elton John's decade-old musical stage version of Hall and director Stephen Daldry's hit turn of the century film. In a tale of one little boy's liberation as a dancer against the backdrop of the 1980s miners strike, however, the Durham Miners banner and the 'Save Our Community' sash held aloft matter more. It is this call to arms that forms the heart of Daldry's production, as Billy becomes a potty-mouthed beacon of hope in a situation where picket line, thin blue line and chorus line rub uneasily up against each other. Given such a context, there is bound to be some pretty grown-up stuff going on here, be it the institutionalised homophobia in Billy's village, the class war going on within it, or Billy's grieving for his dead mother that drives his every move. And, as so magnificently choreographed by Peter Darling, what moves they are. Watch...
Post a Comment
Read more