Christopher Adams
The website for this show is naughty. They give a quote from a review of a production of the same translation, in which the lead actress (Tamsin Shasha) played Medea, and was apparently “chillingly convincing as the mad but marvellous Medea”. A bit of searching and as far as I can see, that review was written in 1998. Luckily Shasha is good, so it’s not completely wrong: it is, however, a bit of a 15 year stretch.
The story, of course, is even older. Medea, a woman scorned, undertakes her revenge by killing her own children to punish the man who betrayed her. It’s powerful, vicious, and a platform for some extreme emotional sport.
The main selling point of this production is the use of aerial choreography. The inspiration for this “derived from the deus ex machina… at the end of the play, when Medea is whisked off in a dragon-drawn chariot sent by her grandfather, Helios the sun god”. It is not surprising that this is the moment when the cumbersome rig and all the practicalities of using it come good. It is a wonderful moment when Medea starts running up the wall and using the full extent of the 3D space provided by the set. Here, the massive sound system in the Rose is put to great use, and the lighting effects are evocative. Other moments, such as stylistic movement to complement particularly gruesome events, are interesting, though they seem slightly tangential.
Then there are times when the rig just gets in the way: it broadens and flattens all the acting. It’s no surprise that the acting is at its best when the actors have two feet on the ground – sure, it’s impressive that they maintain vocal control when suspended, but if it takes away a lot of the nuance, what’s the point? The ropes and the tensions they form between the actors are meant to be a symbol of the power dynamics, but it all becomes a little bit obvious. And it’s cumbersome: all the clipping and unclipping, despite the effort to make it an “exploration of both Medea’s journey and the journey of those that she manipulates”, just takes away from the action. The aerial work isn’t interesting or pushed far enough to make it worth it and, more bizarrely, there are moments when they talk to the carabinas. I’m sure there’s an explanation for that too, but I can’t think of one.
Having said all that, I must applaud the bravery of undertaking such an interpretation. Shasha is by far the most accomplished actress, although she of course does have the best part, and she’s reasonably well backed up by the rest of the cast. I wish the director, Abigail Anderson, had been even braver and pushed her idea to its limit. It felt slightly tame, and that’s something Medea should never be. There was not enough thought about how the aerial work could be used to tell the story better, and it came across sometimes as a showcase of experimental scenes in interpreting ancient text.
That moment at the end though, when she soars above the stage, is brilliant – a visually arresting, sit up-and-watch kind of moment. More of that type of thing would have really got this production’s feet off the ground, but for now at least, it stays rather earthbound.
Medea is playing at the Rose Theatre Kingston until 15 November 2013. For more information and tickets, see the Rose Theatre Kingston website.