Medea

Reviewed by Regina Su

Showing from October the 11^th until the 25^th of November at the Belvoir is a modern adaptation of the ancient Greek play by Euripides; Medea. With fantastic acting, this performance captivated audiences on a rollercoaster of tension, humour and family angst. The story of Medea sees her unstable marriage with husband Jason (of the story Jason and the Argonauts) and to spite him and watch him suffer, she resorts to killing his mistress and his children. This legend of a mother’s angst and her actions when she is at wit’s end are interestingly not the focus of this performance. Medea instead focuses on the children, before they are victims of the family politics and the playwright’s ability of capture the antics of little boys is possibly unrivalled. Their boisterous attitudes and childlike insight are not only a product of the skilful script, but also the extreme maturity of the actors. Absolute commendation to the actors. Blazey’s performance of Medea herself is superb, she commands the attention of the room in a matter of minutes, by stringing out the tension through well-placed silences and posture, it’s so very powerful. The lighting, use of darkness, glow in the dark stars and the set design were very well thought out and believable; these characters may have even been lifted straight out of our own lives. On a niggling reservation, I felt that I needed more of a back story, more of an understanding of why Medea resorted to such a ‘brain-snap’ to kill her children. Without prior knowledge of the Greek play I feel as though sympathy for Medea was difficult to generate as we didn’t comprehend why she hated her husband so much. That said however, they play was focused on the children and the children were convincing and their deaths very powerful.