Triumphantly Rivetting

 

OEDIPUS currently playing at two West End theatres and Medea at the Loft Theatre in Leamington are evidence, if it were needed, that Greek drama resonates as powerfully today as it did in Athens in the 5th century BCE. Love, betrayal, abandonment, exile, revenge – we meet these themes in our newspapers every day.

Director Craig Shelton wisely chose Ben Power’s translation of Euripides’ towering drama, simpler but still poetic and close to the original. It was first staged at the National Theatre in 2014 with the late, great Helen McCrory at the peak of her powers as Medea and Julie-Ann Randell at the Loft does not disappoint in one of the theatre’s most testing yet rewarding roles for a woman.

We see her first as a pathetic creature, half crazed with grief on the day when her adored husband, Jason, a suitably smug, weak and self-justifying Peter Daly-Dickson, for whom she committed terrible crimes that condemn her to exile, abandons her and their young son to marry King Creon’s beautiful young daughter.

Medea commands our attention as she regains her self-worth along with her manipulative prowess, bending first Creon then her friend Aegeus, a strong cameo performance from Mark Roberts, and finally Jason, to her will. Now she has everything in place to triumph over her faithless husband as she exacts her horrific revenge first on his bride and then on his child.

The conventions of a Greek Chorus do not sit easily in today’s theatre, but Craig Shelton directed his Chorus so convincingly that the Women of Corinth seemed to morph from flesh and blood friends to figments of Medea’s imagination as they faded on and off stage, always beautifully placed, complementing not hindering the action.

This version of the play is set in Scandinavia, famed for its long dark winters and a bleakness echoed in Ibsen’s plays and Ingmar Bergman’s films, though a cluttered stage set did not entirely reflect this.

It’s not an easy play to watch as the audience is forced to consider one of the most horrifying acts imaginable. Could a mother kill her children? But Medea is no ordinary mother, she is an enchantress who has killed before and this is a tragedy, and tragedy is inexorable. Nonetheless, the Loft’s Medea was a triumphant account of a great play, riveting throughout, and in a strange way, enjoyable. Catch it if you can and especially if you can take advantage of the free tickets for young people.

BY URSULA RUSSELL