Medea - Full Play

15.07.2023

Media is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides. It is based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and was first produced in 431 BC as part of a trilogy; the two other plays have not survived.

Synopsis:

The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess who's also a highly dangerous, evil and unstable witch of the kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering his new wife as well as her own two sons, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.

The form of the play differs from many other Greek tragedies by its simplicity. Most scenes involve only Medea and someone else. The Chorus, here representing the women of Corinth, is usually involved alongside them. The 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 one about child-killing in which the deed is performed in cold blood as opposed to in a state of temporary madness.

It can be argued that in the play Euripides portrays Medea out to be 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.

Media was adapted by Robinson Jeffers from Euripides and here in this 1982 Tv adaptation version Australian actress Zoe Calwell's (who unfortunately passed away in 2020) amazing acting performance is truly remarkable, natural, and professional.

She managed to depict the all typical hysteric features of a mentally ill but also dangerous witch woman who has paranormal witchcraft and magic skills, a passionate woman craving the lost love and interest of her husband and thereby blazing by the fire of vengeance.

Other Stars:

Judith Anderson: The Nurse

Mitchell Ryan: Jason

Jacqueline Brookes: First Woman of Corinth

Paul Sperer: Creon

Peter Brandon Aegeus

Harriet Nichols: Second Woman

Giulia Pagano Third Woman

Don McHenry: The Tudors

Stephen & Christopher Garvin: the Children

Lucian Douglas: Slave

John Peters, Alan Thompson, Mark Leone: Attendantst

The Director: Mark Cullingham

The Producer: Mary Rawson.

Euripides (480 – c. 406 BC) was a 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 him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less completely.

Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. He also became "the most tragic of poets focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown.

He was the influencer writer of the theatre of Shakespeare's Othello, Racine's Phèdre, of Ibsen and Strindberg in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates.

His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of decadent intellectualism. Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia, but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources.

Please do not ever miss this almost 2500 years old beautiful play and tremendous acting performances.