WHO dares to break down Euripedes’ classic bloody tragedy, ‘Medea’? At three hours running time to his original, Multi Story Theatre Company muscled to the task and stripped the production showing at Limerick Fringe to an hour.
Such is the searing power of what Multi Story’s Bill Buffery and Gill Nathanson created, the Canadian Broadcasting Company describes this ‘Medea’ as “Magnificent. There’s no other word for it”.
Bill Buffery took on the adaptation for this two-person company, making the point that Euripedes conceived it as a three-hander with chorus so the mission was possible. Why Medea?
“The process started about 20 years ago. We were looking for a play to do about political betrayal. This had to do with our feeling that Tony Blair’s government had got in and there was a feeling of euphoria and hope. A year later it seems to us there was a shift in the values we had associated with him and felt he had been elected on. He had adopted most Tory policies and we felt betrayed by that.”
Thus the appeal of the story of “the bright young man” this is Jason, loved spouse of Medea, and his opportune betrayal of her for “the younger model” and a fast track to power. “It embraces other themes to. We realised it was better than anything we were ever going to come up with.”
Gill Nathanson is the gutsy Medea who slaughters her young in a convulsion of madness and revenge. Multi Story plays it as “Jason and Medea held in limbo and destined to tell and retell the story to their children of how their murders came about. The children do not understand and they have to tell the story again and again…”
Anticipate this mesmerising horror within a beautifully designed frame to which lighting is significant.
Belltable, April 5, 6 and 7. Booking at www.limerickfringe.com
