Medea (play)
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''Medea'' (, ''Mēdeia'') is a tragedy by the
ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
playwright
Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...
based on a myth. It was first performed in 431 BC as part of a trilogy, the other plays of which have not survived. Its plot centers on the actions of
Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...
, a former princess of the kingdom of
Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...
and the wife of
Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...
; she finds her position in the world threatened as Jason leaves her for a princess of
Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...
and takes vengeance on him by murdering his new wife and her own two sons, before escaping to
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
to start a new life. Euripides's play has been explored and interpreted by playwrights across the centuries and the world in a variety of ways, offering political, psychoanalytical, feminist, and many other original readings of Medea, Jason, and the core themes of the play. ''Medea'', along with three other plays, earned Euripides third prize in the City Dionysia. Some believe that this indicates a poor reception, but "the competition that year was extraordinarily keen";
Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...
, often winning first prize, came second. The play was initially rediscovered with Rome's Augustan drama, and then again in the 16th century. It has remained part of the tragedic repertoire, becoming a classic of the
Western canon The Western canon is the embodiment of High culture, high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly cherished across the Western culture, Western world, such works having achieved the status of classics. Recent ...
and the most frequently performed Greek tragedy in the 20th century. Helene P. Foley. ''Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage''. University of California Press, 1 Sep 2012, p. 190 It experienced renewed interest in the
feminist movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and wom ...
of the late 20th century, being interpreted as a nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of Medea's struggle to take charge of her own life in a male-dominated world. The play holds the American Theatre Wing's Tony Award record for most wins for the same female lead character in a play, with Judith Anderson winning in 1948, Zoe Caldwell in 1982, and
Diana Rigg Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series ''The Avengers (TV series), The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Tracy Bond, Teresa di ...
in 1994.


History

''Medea'' was first performed in 431 BC at the City Dionysia festival. Here every year, three tragedians competed against each other, each writing a
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...
of three tragedies and a
satyr play The satyr play is a form of Attic theatre performance related to both comedy and tragedy. It preserves theatrical elements of dialogue, actors speaking verse, a chorus that dances and sings, masks and costumes. Its relationship to tragedy is st ...
(alongside ''Medea'' were '' Philoctetes'', ''
Dictys Dictys (, ''Díktus'') was a name attributed to four men in Greek mythology. * Dictys, a fisherman and brother of King Polydectes of Seriphos, both being the sons of Magnes (mythology), Magnes and a Naiad, or of Peristhenes and Androthoe,Scholia ...
'' and the satyr play '' Theristai''). In 431 the competition was among Euphorion (the son of famed playwright
Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...
),
Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...
(Euripides's main rival) and Euripides. Euphorion won, and Euripides placed third (and last). ''Medea'' has survived the transplants of culture and time and continues to captivate audiences with its riveting power. The play's influence can be seen in the works of later playwrights, such as William Shakespeare. While ''Medea'' is considered one of the great plays of the
Western canon The Western canon is the embodiment of High culture, high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly cherished across the Western culture, Western world, such works having achieved the status of classics. Recent ...
, Euripides's place in the competition suggests that his first audience might not have responded so favorably. A
scholium Scholia (: scholium or scholion, from , "comment", "interpretation") are grammar, grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of the manuscript of a ...
to line 264 of the play suggests that Medea's children were traditionally killed by the Corinthians after her escape; so Euripides's apparent invention of the filicide might have offended, as his first treatment of the Hippolytus myth did. That Euripides and others took liberties with Medea's story may be inferred from the 1st-century-BC historian
Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (;  1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...
: "Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out." A common urban legend claimed that Euripides put the blame on Medea because the Corinthians had bribed him with a sum of five talents. In the 4th century BC, South-Italian vase painting offers a number of Medea representations that are connected to Euripides's play — the most famous is a
krater A krater or crater (, ; , ) was a large two-handled type of vase in Pottery of ancient Greece, Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in ...
in Munich. However, these representations always differ considerably from the plots of the play or are too general to support any direct link to Euripides's play. But the violent and powerful character of Medea, and her double nature — both loving and destructive — became a standard for later periods of antiquity. Medea has been adapted into numerous forms of media, including operas, films, and novels. With the text's rediscovery in 1st-century Rome (the play was adapted by the tragedians Ennius, Lucius Accius,
Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
,
Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger ( ; AD 65), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, a dramatist, and in one work, a satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca ...
and Hosidius Geta, among others), again in 16th-century Europe, and the development of modern
literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...
, ''Medea'' has provoked multifarious reactions.


Form and themes

The form of the play differs from many other Greek tragedies by its simplicity; most scenes involve only Medea, one other character, and The Chorus, representing the women of Corinth. These simple encounters highlight Medea's skill and determination in manipulating powerful male figures. The play is also the only Greek tragedy in which a kin-killer makes it unpunished to the end of the play, and the only tragedy about child-killing in which the deed is performed in cold blood, as opposed to in a state of temporary madness. Medea's rebellion shakes the world as she tells of her history, shedding light on the actions that ultimately lead to her denigration and dethronement. Euripides depicts Medea as a witch and a devourer of men and children, rather than as a wife and mother wronged. Euripides' characterization of Medea exhibits the inner emotions of passion,
love Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...
, and vengeance. According to classics scholar Fiona Macintosh, " edeahas successfully negotiated her path through very diverse cultural and political contexts: either by being radically recast as 'exemplary' mother and wife, or by being seen as a proto-feminist wrongly abandoned by a treacherous husband." Feminist readings have interpreted the play as either a sympathetic exploration of the disadvantages of being a woman in a
patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
society,See (e.g.) ; ; ; ; or as an expression of misogynist attitudes. In conflict with this sympathetic undertone (or reinforcing a more negative reading) is Medea's
barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...
identity, which some argue might antagonize a 5th-century BC Greek audience. It can be argued that in the play Euripides portrays Medea as an enraged woman who kills her children to get revenge on her husband Jason because of his betrayal of their marriage. Medea is often cited as an example of the "madwoman in the attic" trope, in which women who defy societal norms are portrayed as mentally unstable. A competing interpretation is that Medea kills her children because she cares for them and worries about their well-being; once she commits to her plan to kill Creon and Jason's new bride, she knows her children are in danger of being murdered. This is not a paranoid fantasy; at this time in myth and history, helping one's friends and hurting one's enemies was considered a virtue. Thus, by their code of ethics, the Corinthians would do right to avenge their king and princess. (In another version of the myth, the people of Corinth kill her children to avenge the deaths of Creon and his daughter Glauke.) Conversely, a focus on Medea's rage leads to the interpretation that "Medea becomes the personification of vengeance, with her humanity 'mortified' and 'sloughed off (Cowherd, 129). Medea's heritage places her in a position more typically reserved for males. Hers is the power of the sun, appropriately symbolized by her great radiance, tremendous heat and boundless passion. In this view Medea is inhuman and her suffering is self-inflicted, just as Jason argues in his debate with her. And yet, if we see events through Medea's eyes, we view a wife intent on vengeance, and a mother concerned about her children's safety and quality of life. Thus, Medea as a wife kills Creon and Glauke in the act of vengeance, and Medea as a mother thinks her children will be better off killed by her hand than left to suffer at the hands of an enemy intent on vengeance. Medea is often described as having a "heroic temper" and a strong motivation to avoid the laughter of her enemies, "even at the cost of decisions that contradict self-interest, personal safety, or strongly held moral beliefs".Lush, B. (2014). Combat Trauma and Psychological Injury in Euripides’ Medea. ''Helios'', ''41''(1), 25–57. Although some may say that her motive was jealousy over Jason’s new bride, her pride also made her unwilling to let her enemies, in this case Jason and his new wife, look down on her. Medea stated that "her enemies ouldcause her pain and rejoice," and that her priority was to "avoid her enemies’ derision." Although the murder of her children would cause her pain, Medea’s temperament caused her to prioritize Jason’s unhappiness over anything else.


Story

''Medea'' is centered on Medea's calculated desire for revenge against her unfaithful husband. Medea is of divine descent and had the gift of prophecy. She married Jason and used her magic powers and advice to help him find and retrieve the golden fleece. The play is set in
Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...
some time after Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, where he met Medea. The play begins with Medea in a blind rage towards Jason for arranging to marry
Glauce In Greek mythology, Glauce (; Ancient Greek: Γλαύκη ''Glaukê'' means 'blue-gray' or 'gleaming'), Latin Glauca, refers to different people: *Glauce, an Arcadian nymph, one of the nurses of Zeus. She and the other nurses were represente ...
, the daughter of king Creon. The nurse, overhearing Medea's grief, fears what she might do to herself or her children. Creon, in anticipation of Medea's wrath, arrives and reveals his plans to send her into exile. Crouching at Creon's feet, Medea begs him in the name of her children to allow her one day's delay. At this Creon is moved and grants to her one more day in Corinth. Medea's unexpected power of persuasion or even of fascination lies in her change of attitude: instead of preaching to Creon about the unpopularity of the ''sophoi'' she plays the role of a desperate mother, needing one day to prepare for exile. Medea is aware of the humiliating quality of this tactic, but she justifies it on the grounds of a gain and of her need to remain in Corinth: "Do you think that I would ever have flattered that man unless I had some gain to make or some device to execute? I wouldn't have even spoken or touched him with my hands". In the next scene Jason arrives to explain his rationale for his apparent betrayal. He explains that he could not pass up the opportunity to marry a royal princess, as Medea is only a
barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...
woman, but hopes to someday join the two families and keep Medea as his mistress. Medea, and the chorus of Corinthian women, do not believe him. She reminds him that she left her own people for him ("I rescued you ..I betrayed both my father and my house ..now where should I go?"), and that she saved him and slew the dragon. Jason promises to support her after his new marriage ("If you wish me to give you or the children extra money for your trip into exile, tell me; I'm ready to give it with a lavish hand"), but Medea spurns him: "Go on, play the bridegroom! Perhaps ..you've made a match you'll one day have cause to lament." In the following scene Medea encounters
Aegeus Aegeus (, ; ) was one of the List of kings of Athens, kings of Athens in Greek mythology, who gave his name to the Aegean Sea, was the father of Theseus, and founded Athenian institutions. Family Aegeus was the son of Pandion II, king of Athe ...
, king of Athens. He reveals to her that despite his marriage he is still without children. He visited the
oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...
who merely told him that he was instructed "not to unstop the wineskin's neck". Medea relays her current situation to him and begs for Aegeus to let her stay in
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
if she gives him drugs to end his infertility. Aegeus, unaware of Medea's plans for revenge, agrees. Medea then returns to plotting the murders of Glauce and Creon. She decides to poison some golden robes (a family heirloom and gift from the sun god
Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...
, her grandfather) and a coronet, in hopes that the bride will not be able to resist wearing them, and consequently be poisoned. Medea resolves to kill her own children as well, not because the children have done anything wrong, but because she feels it is the best way to hurt Jason. She calls for Jason once more and, in an elaborate ruse, apologizes to him for overreacting to his decision to marry Glauce. When Jason appears fully convinced that she regrets her actions, Medea begins to cry in mourning of the exile. She convinces Jason to allow their two sons to give gifts to Glauce in hopes that Creon will lift the exile against the children. Eventually Jason agrees. In the next scene a messenger recounts Glauce and Creon's deaths. When the children arrived with the robes and coronet, Glauce gleefully put them on and went to find her father. The poison overtook her and she fell to the floor, dying horribly and painfully. Creon clutched her tightly as he tried to save her and, by coming in contact with the robes and coronet, was poisoned and died as well. While Medea is pleased with her current success she decides to take it one step further. Since Jason brought shame upon her for trying to start a new family, Medea resolves to destroy the family he was willing to give up by killing their sons. Medea does have a moment of hesitation when she considers the pain that her children's deaths will put her through. However, she steels her resolve to cause Jason the most pain possible and rushes offstage with a knife to kill her children. Determined to stop Medea, the chorus runs after her only to hear the children scream. Jason then rushes onto the scene to confront Medea about murdering Creon and Glauce, and he quickly discovers that his children have been killed as well. Medea then appears above the stage with the bodies of her children in a chariot given to her by the sun god Helios. When this play was put on, this scene was accomplished using the '' mechane'' device usually reserved for the appearance of a god or goddess. She confronts Jason, reveling in his pain at being unable to ever hold his children again: Although Jason calls Medea most hateful to gods and men, the fact that the chariot is given to her by Helios indicates that she still has the gods on her side. As Bernard Knox points out, Medea's last scene with concluding appearances parallels that of a number of indisputably divine beings in other plays by Euripides. Just like these gods, Medea "interrupts and puts a stop to the violent action of the human being on the lower level, … justifies her savage revenge on the grounds that she has been treated with disrespect and mockery, … takes measures and gives orders for the burial of the dead, prophesies the future," and "announces the foundation of a cult." She then escapes to Athens in the divine chariot. The chorus is left contemplating the will of
Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...
in Medea's actions: This deliberate murder of her children by Medea appears to be Euripides' invention, although some scholars believe Neophron created this alternate tradition. Her filicide would go on to become the standard for later writers. Pausanias, writing in the late 2nd century AD, records five different versions of what happened to Medea's children after reporting that he has seen a monument for them while traveling in Corinth.


Modern productions and adaptations


Theatre

* Catulle Mendès adapted ''Medea'' into his play ''Medée'' in 1898, in three acts and in verse. Alfons Mucha drew a poster for a performance of this play starring
Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...
. *
Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; ; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ...
adapted the Medea story in his French drama '' Médée'' in 1946 * Robinson Jeffers adapted Medea into a hit Broadway play in 1947, in a famous production starring Judith Anderson, the first of three actresses to win a
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
for the role. It was directed by John Gielgud, who co-starred as Jason. ''Medea'' opened on Broadway at the National Theatre on 20 October 1947, transferred to the Royale Theatre on 15 December, and closed on 15 May 1948, after 214 performances. At the 2nd Tony Awards on 28 March 1948, Judith Anderson shared (with Katharine Cornell and Jessica Tandy) the Award for Best Actress in a Play. Another staging, produced and directed by
Guthrie McClintic Guthrie McClintic (August 6, 1893 – October 29, 1961) was an American theatre director, film director, and producer based in New York. Life and career McClintic was born in Seattle, attended Washington University in St. Louis and New York's A ...
at the City Center, premiered on 2 May 1949, and closed, after 16 performances, on 21 May. A staging in 1982, at the
Cort Theatre The James Earl Jones Theatre, originally the Cort Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 138 48th Street (Manhattan), West 48th Street, between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater ...
, brought a Tony win for Zoe Caldwell, who played Medea, and a Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for Judith Anderson as Nurse. * Ben Bagley's Shoestring Revue performed a musical parody
off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
in the 1950s which was later issued on an LP and a CD, and was revived in 1995. The same plot points take place, but ''Medea in Disneyland'' is a parody, in that it takes place in a
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
animated cartoon. * Canada's Stratford Festival staged an adaptation of ''Medea'' by Larry Fineberg in 1978, which starred Patricia Idlette in the title role. * Yukio Ninagawa staged a production called ''Ohjo Media'' (王女メディア) in 1978, followed by a second version in 2005 *In 1982, George Eugeniou at Theatro Technis London directed Medea as a barefooted unwanted refugee played with "fierce agility" and "dangerous passions" by Angelique Rockas * In 1983, ''
kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
'' Master Shozo Sato created ''Kabuki Medea'' uniting Euripides' play and classical Kabuki storytelling and presentation. It debuted at Wisdom Bridge Theater in Chicago. * The 1990 play '' Pecong'', by Steve Carter, is a retelling of ''Medea'' set on a fictional Caribbean island around the turn of the 20th century * The play was staged at the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End, in a translation by Alistair Elliot.From the programme and publicity materials for this production. The production opened on 19 October 1993. * Chrysanthos Mentis Bostantzoglou makes a parody of this tragedy in his comedy ''Medea'' (1993). * A 1993 dance-theatre retelling of the Medea myth was produced by Edafos Dance Theatre, directed by avant-garde stage director and choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou. * John Fisher wrote a camp musical version of ''Medea'' entitled ''Medea the Musical'' that re-interpreted the play in light of gay culture. The production was first staged in 1994 in
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
. *
Christopher Durang Christopher Ferdinand Durang (January 2, 1949 – April 2, 2024) was an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in th ...
and Wendy Wasserstein co-wrote a sketch version for the
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's Drama division 25th Anniversary. It premiered 25 April 1994, at the Juilliard Theater, New York City. * In November 1997 National Theatre of Greece launched a worldwide tour of ''Medea'', a critically acclaimed production directed by Nikaiti Kontouri, starring Karyofyllia Karambeti as Medea, Kostas Triantafyllopoulos as Creon and Lazaros Georgakopoulos as
Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...
. The tour included performances in France, Australia, Israel, Portugal, United States, Canada, Turkey, Bulgaria, China and Japan and lasted almost two years, until July 1999. The play opened in the United States at Shubert Theatre in
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(18 and 19 September 1998) and then continued at City Center Theatre in
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,
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(23 to 27 September 1998), receiving a very positive review from ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. *
Neil LaBute Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, ''In the Company of Men'' (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Fest ...
wrote ''Medea Redux'', a modern retelling, first performed in 1999 starring Calista Flockhart, as part of his one-act
trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...
entitled '' Bash: Latter-Day Plays''. In this version, the main character is seduced by her middle-school teacher. He abandons her, and she kills their child out of revenge. *
Michael John LaChiusa Michael John LaChiusa (born July 24, 1962) is an American musical theatre and opera composer, lyricist, and librettist. He is best known for musically esoteric shows such as '' Hello Again'', '' Marie Christine'', '' The Wild Party'', and '' See W ...
created a Broadway musical adaptation work for Audra McDonald entitled '' Marie Christine'' in 1999. McDonald portrayed the title role, and the show was set in 1890s New Orleans and Chicago. * Liz Lochhead's ''Medea'' previewed at the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow as part of Theatre Babel's ''Greeks'' in 2000 before the Edinburgh Fringe and national tour. "What Lochhead does is to recast MEDEA as an episode-ancient but new, cosmic yet agonisingly familiar- in a sex war which is recognisable to every woman, and most of the men, in the theatre", wrote ''
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''. *In 2000, Wesley Enoch wrote and directed a modern adaptation titled ''Black Medea'', which was first produced by Sydney Theatre Company's Blueprint at the Wharf 2 Theatre, Sydney, on 19 August 2000. Nathan Ramsay played the part of Jason, Tessa Rose played Medea, and Justine Saunders played the Chorus. Medea is re-characterised as an indigenous woman transported from her homeland to the city and about to be abandoned by her abusive social-climbing husband. *
Tom Lanoye Tom Lanoye (; born 27 August 1958) is a Belgian novelist, poet, columnist, screenwriter and playwright. He is one of the most widely read and honoured authors in his language area (the Netherlands and Flanders), and makes regular appearances at ...
(2001) used the story of Medea to bring up modern problems (such as migration and man vs. woman), resulting in a modernized version of Medea. His version also aims to analyze ideas such as the love that develops from the initial passion, problems in the marriage, and the "final hour" of the love between Jason and Medea. * Kristina Leach adapted the story for her play ''The Medea Project'', which had its world premiere at the Hunger Artists Theatre Company in 2004 and placed the story in a modern-day setting. * Peter Stein directed ''Medea'' in Epidaurus 2005 * Irish playwright Marina Carr's '' By the Bog of Cats'' is a modern re-telling of Euripides' ''Medea''. * In November 2008, Theatre Arcadia, under the direction of Katerina Paliou, staged ''Medea'' at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina ( University of Alexandria, Egypt). The production was noted (by Nehad Selaiha of the weekly ''Al-Ahram'') not only for its unexpected change of plot at the very end but also for its chorus of one hundred who alternated their speech between Arabic and English. The translation used was that of George Theodoridis. * US Latina playwright Caridad Svich's 2009 play ''Wreckage'', which premiered at Crowded Fire Theatre in San Francisco, tells the story of Medea from the sons' point of view, in the afterlife. * Paperstrangers Performance Group toured a critically acclaimed production of ''Medea'' directed by Michael Burke to U.S. Fringe Festivals in 2009 and 2010. *Bart Lee's interpretation of Medea, renamed ''Medea, My Dear'', was performed in Surrey and later toured the south of England from 2010 to 2011. * Luis Alfaro's re-imagining of Medea, ''Mojada'', world premiered at Victory Gardens Theater in 2013. * Theatre Lab's production, by Greek director Anastasia Revi, opened at The Riverside Studios, London, on 5 March 2014. *'' The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea'' by Cherríe Moraga takes elements of ''Medea'' and of other worksEschen, Nicole (
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
).
The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea (review)
" '' Theatre Journal''. Volume 58, Number 1, March 2006 pp. 103–106 , 10.1353/tj.2006.0070 – At: Project MUSE, p. 103
* 14 July – 4 September 2014 London
Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...
staging of Euripides in a new version by Ben Power, starring Helen McCrory as Medea, directed by Carrie Cracknell, music by Will Gregory and
Alison Goldfrapp Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp (born 13 May 1966) is an English musician and record producer, known as the vocalist of English electronic music duo Goldfrapp. Early life and education Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp was born on 13 Ma ...
. * 25 September – 14 November 2015 London
Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre is a 325-seat producing house located on Almeida Street off Upper Street in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre opened in 1980, and produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West E ...
a new adaptation by Rachel Cusk, starring Kate Fleetwood as Medea, directed by Rupert Goold. * 17 February – 6 March 2016 in Austin at the Long Center for the Performing Arts starring Franchelle Stewart Dorn as Medea and directed by Ann Ciccolella. * May 2016 – MacMillan Films released a full staging of the original ''Medea'' which was staged for camera. The DVD release shows the entire play. complete with the Aegis scenes, choral odes and triumphant ending. Directed by James Thomas and starring Olivia Sutherland, the staging features Peter Arnott's critically acclaimed translation. * Chico Buarque and Paulo Pontes, Gota d'Água (musical play set in 1970s Rio de Janeiro, based on Euripides, 1975). Several times revived, including a 2016/2017 production starring Laila Garin (celebrated for her title role in the highly regarded musical biography of Elis Regina, staged in Brasil in 2015). * February 2017: the play was staged in South Korea, directed by Hungarian theatre director Róbert Alföldi, with Lee Hye-young in the titular role. * In some editions of the theatrical play, Medea would be played as a man instead of a woman to show a unique and perhaps more culturally accepted point of view. * In some play adaptations, Jason is played as a sympathetic figure who is manipulated by Medea, rather than a conniving opportunist.


Film

*
Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...
adapted the legend into a movie of the same name in 1969 starring Maria Callas as Medea *In the 1983 film '' Storia di Piera'' by Marco Ferreri, Isabelle Huppert as the protagonist learns the part of Medea at school and plays it when she is an adult actress. *Asian-American filmmaker Michael Justin Lee reinterpreted the story into a noir short film set in modern-day America starring Amy Gordon as Medea. (2018)


Television

* Australian actress Zoe Caldwell's performance in the 1982 Broadway adaptation of the Jeffers' script wa
recorded for broadcast
on the PBS series ''Kennedy Center Tonight''. *
Lars von Trier Lars von Trier (né Trier; born 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series ''Secret Summer'', von Trier's career has spanned more than five decad ...
made a version for television in 1988, based on the script adaptation by
Carl Theodor Dreyer Carl Theodor Dreyer (; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers in history, his movies are noted for emotional austerity ...
. * Theo van Gogh directed a miniseries version that aired 2005, the year following his murder. * ''OedipusEnders'', a documentary broadcast on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
on 13 April 2010, discussed similarities between
soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
and Greek theatre. One interviewee revealed that the writers for the ITV police drama series ''
The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...
'' had consciously and directly drawn on ''Medea'' in writing an episode for the series. * Playwright Mike Bartlett was inspired to create a modern-day suburban ''Medea'' after adapting the Euripides play for a theatre production in 2012. Bartlett's 2015–2017 BBC1 miniseries '' Doctor Foster'' follows the structure of the Greek tragedy. A Korean remake of the series, '' The World of the Married'', became the highest-rated cable drama in Korean history, with its final episode reaching a nationwide rating of 28.371%.


English translations

* Robert Potter, 1781 - verse: full text * Michael Wodhull, 1782 – verse * Edward P. Coleridge, 1891 – prose: full text * Theodore Alois Buckley, 1892 – prose: full text * Gilbert Murray, 1912 – verse: full text * Arthur S. Way, 1912 – verse * F. L. Lucas, 1924 – verse * Augustus T. Murray, 1931 – prose * Countee Cullen, 1935 * Moses Hadas and John McLean, 1936 – prose * R. C. Trevelyan, 1939 – verse * Rex Warner, 1944 – verse * Robinson Jeffers, 1946 – verse * Ray Mathew, 1953 – verse * Peter D. Arnott, 1961 – verse * Philip Vellacott, 1963 * Rush Rehm, 1973 - prose * John Davie, 1996 * James Morwood, 1997 – prose * Paul Roche, 1998 – verse * Ruby Blondell, 1999 – verse * George Theodoridis, 2004 – prose: full text * Stephen Esposito, 2004 – verse * Joseph Goodrich, 2005 – verse: full text * Graham Kirby, 2006 – verse (The Bloomsbury Theatre) * Diane Arnson Svarlien, 2008 – verse *
Robin Robertson Robin Robertson (born in 1955) is a Scottish poet. Biography Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland, but has spent most of his professional life in London. After working as an editor at Penguin Books and Secker and War ...
, 2008 – verse * J. Michael Walton, 2008 – prose * Ian C. Johnston, 2008 – verse: full text * Tom Paulin, 2010 - full text * Judith Mossman (classicist), 2011 – prose * Brian Vinero, 2012 – rhymed verse: full text * Mike Bartlett, 2012 – play * Diane Rayor, 2013 * David Stuttard, 2014 – prose * Alan Chriztopher R. Aranza, 2015 – prose *Rachel Kitzinger, 2016 – verse *Charles Martin, 2019 *Richard Swanson, 2020 – prose *Michael Ewans, 2022 – verseEwans, Michael 'Euripides' Medea; translation and theatrical commentary' (Routledge 2022)


References


Further reading

* * * * * * Haralu, L. (2017). Madwomen and Mad Women: An Analysis of the Use of Female Insanity and Anger in Narrative Fiction, From Vilification to Validation. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. (Accession No. 10643100) * Lootens, Barbara J. "Images of Women in Greek Drama." ''Feminist Teacher'', vol. 2, no. 1, 1986, pp. 24–28. ''JSTOR'', . Accessed 27 Mar. 2023. * * * * * * Pucci, Pietro. "Survival in the Holy Garden." ''The Violence of Pity In Euripides’ “Medea,”'' vol. 41, Cornell University Press, 1980, pp. 91–130. ''JSTOR'', http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.cttq44w0.6. Accessed 27 Mar. 2023. * * * * Tessitore, Aristide. "Euripides’ ‘Medea’ and the Problem of Spiritedness." The Review of Politics, vol. 53, no. 4, 1991, pp. 587–601. JSTOR, . Accessed 27 Apr. 2023. * Tigani, Francesco (2010), ''Rappresentare Medea. Dal mito al nichilismo'', Aracne. *


External links

* (multiple English translations)
Structure of the tragedy.ClassicNotes about "Medea"Cultural Organization "Theatre Arcadia" link to photographs and reviews of Medea directed by George Eugeniou at Theatro Technis and Angelique Rockas in the title role
*
see the famous 3rd Choral ode of Medea from the Olivia Sutherland Medea
{{Authority control Corinthian mythology Feminism and the arts Fiction about filicide Greek plays adapted into films Plays based on classical mythology Plays by Euripides Plays set in ancient Greece Women and death Works about Medea Cultural depictions of Jason Helios Plays about princesses