Medea live theatre review

Medea - Live theatre review

I saw Medea on Friday 15th November at the Unicorn theatre in London. The theatre itself was a traverse seating arrangement, with the action going on in front of the audience and only in front. It was a stunning performance that featured a vast range of dramatic features that mellowed together in a visually stunning and gripping performance. This even rattled down to the equipment they used with safety harness’s and ropes being used as a dramatic medium of the struggle for power throughout Medea’s life. 

The aerial acrobatic theme of this Medea was breathtaking and beautiful leading the audience into a stunned silence of awe and entrancing them deeper into the meanings behind it. They used the acrobatic equipment as an advantage rather than a hindrance by making it prominent, as if it was a built in feature. The pushing, pulling, swooping and fighting was enigmatically enhanced by the equipment and even brought a deeper meaning to aspects of the play. This could be shown by the beginning scene: all of the actors are surrounding Medea at the four corners of a square upstage. They are each connected to Medea via a rope linked on to their safety belt and are in turn forcefully pulling her between each other. It shows the oppression forced upon Medea by the people surrounding her, showing how they shape the madness that she is and that in actual fact she is only in such a place from all of the torment she gets from her peers. This was also shown by the battle between her and Kreon. The actors are connected via a rope and a pulley system with Kreon being positioned on a ladder on the far right upstage and Medea hanging off the other end in the middle upstage. Medea is running up and down an extremely large wall (centre upstage) showing how she is trying to be free of the chains wrapped around her by Kreon, or in this case the rope. This imagery is enhanced by the fact that Kreon’s weight is physically pulling her back each time, he’s being a direct influence on her movement, changing it from free and flowing in a maniacal sort of manner to one of pain and short bursts of energy broken up by interludes of resting from the effort. The overall effect of this was to physically show the inner mental struggle of Medea. She was constantly fighting a battle, trying to get what she wanted but was stopped at every corner by a superior. This could portray a message towards the everyday life of every other human being alive. We live our lives trying to get what we want yet are constantly struggling against the boundaries set by our superiors. 

Another dramatic effect used within Medea was the lighting and sound. Both of these dramatic mediums played a heavy influence on the feelings and emotions of the play both for the audience and intensity of the scenes especially with building tension. An example of the sound affecting the tension within the audience would be the scene when Medea is finally losing her mind. She is limply swing around the stage by a rope and pulley attached to the centre of the above stage rigging and in the background are whisperings and echoes of the lines Medea is chanting. It gave the piece an eerie melodic feel as if Medea was singing an ancient incantation. It made the audience feel on edge as if they were witnessing the dismantling of a human mind right in front of their eyes. On top of this, piercing blue lights flickered on Medea when she started shrieking and shouting. This came as a shock to the audience and brought a sense of uneasy dread upon the masses, this then mingled with a bit of fear after Medea suddenly freezes in the centre of the stage under a heavy red haze of lighting. The effect created by these sudden changes was one of varying emotions being felt by the audience. It fed fear into the audiences mind and layered the image of Medea’s mind slowly and brutally unravelling into their own minds. It acted as a strong message that finally all of these life influences had won. Medea was finally broken and the struggle had now begun for them. This was also shown by the singing throughout the piece. The harmonic and ancient throaty singing styles used by the females within the cast gave a sign of fragility to the strong, deep belly voice used by the man playing Kreon. It added a strong intensity to the emotions running through each scene. Usually the voices were used in a gradual crescendo until they reacher the point of forte. I felt this use of ancient harmonising was representative of the exorcism of some spirit or evil creature, almost as if they were forcing Medea out. The message that I got from this use of lighting and sound was one of despair, it tried to get people to be able to visualise the effects of a build up of traumata or harassing effects upon a human mind. It snaps even the strongest of minds after a frantic struggle for control. 

In conclusion, I feel that the vast array of dramatic mediums used within Medea aided this work beautifully. Mixed with the serenity and intensity of the aerial theatre it collaborated to provide a gut wrenching, visually and mentally stunning play. One that stuck in the minds of the audience and made them think of the consequences of actions. This production wasn’t afraid of emotions and wanted to show the real barebones of the human mind. They also weren’t afraid of featuring odd pieces of equipment such as the safety harnesses or ladders. This helped to add a strong air of originality and worked to stick the play into the audience’s minds leaving them with a lasting effect as well as an immediate thought process.