MEDEA, Bell Theatre April 2003
Congratulations to all the cast and crew of Medea - such a visual and aural treat!
The balance of an unfussingly stunning set and simple yet effective costumes against the complexities and emotions of the script and characters was very effective. In this case, more may well have been too much for an audience member to cope with!!
This difficult piece is very well put together by brilliant director Matt - my own personal acclaims go to Helen who is outstanding as the spurned Queen (just how DID she learn all of those lines???), and the brilliant and powerful monologue delivered by David Green as the messenger. Special mention also to 2 very believable sons.
Liam as Jason works very well opposite Helen's Queen although at times, due to blocking, I had trouble hearing his lines. The raw emotion of the Nurse was incredibly powerful although again at times it was difficult to make out actual lines over wailing.
Although I appreciate how difficult it must be to play, I found the chorus slightly confusing and disjointed - after discussion with Anna in the bar afterwards I learnt that each chorus member had a different character and a specific motive to explain their actions and reactions, but I was unsure throughout the production of whether that was the case or not.
The lighting for the main part was very effective and dramatic, although I did find a couple of flickerings slightly offputting, although I suspect this has more to do with equipment rather than operation...
The (again very dramatic) sound effects at the beginning, whilst the audience is plunged in darkness, set the scene excellently, although possibly slightly too long.
Overall, Medea is a wonderful, powerful piece of drama that is well put together, well directed and well acted. It is unquestionably worth seeing.
Beth Smith
Well all I can say is that the enthusiastic reviews are merited! It was brave of SLT to attempt to stage a stark, stylised play which was written 2,400 years ago (albeit one which has played successfully and commercially in the West End in recent years with celebrated performances by Diana Rigg and Fiona Shaw) and the gamble certainly seems to have been worthwhile from last night s performance.
Top honours must of course go to Matt Bartlett and Helen Chadney for her mesmerizing, wonderfully controlled performance as the scorned and vengeful Sorceress-Queen. Medea is a huge and daunting part demanding an extraordinary pitch of sustained intensity and Helen seemed to take on all of these challenges with great confidence. Her Medea was both deeply sensitive and ferociously proud, and there was a sense of the awful inevitability of her appalling revenge from her first scene in the blood-red robes.
Equal honours in my opinion must go to David Green for his exquisitely acted Messenger, conveying the ghastly off-stage details of Medea's vengeance against Creon and his daughter. This was both beautifully felt and technically accomplished in its emotional trajectory and unhurried timing, and for me it constituted the single unexpected highlight of the evening.
Kudos also to Stuey Draper for his clean, extremely effective set and to Alan Buckman for the striking costumes. (Although I surely can t be the only person who secretly wished every one of them had been taken in by at least 2 inches: almost every player hurried on, one after the other, gingerly holding his or her robes aloft, and also appeared nervous of tripping over at some later stage).
The decision to individualise each member of the four-strong chorus was a mixed blessing I thought. It seemed a bit fussy and distracting at times, leading one to wonder why exactly one actor was grinning broadly while another looked forlorn. But it was an original idea to give each of them a distinct character, and it made for a moment of high effectiveness when the fierce chorus members (Anna York and Maggie Kruger) were ranged to the right of Medea just before she perpetrated her last appalling act, and the horrified members (Sue McAleaney and Dee Fancett) stood powerless to her left.
So a bold departure for the SLT - a play which is older than Christianity and which makes extreme demands on an audience for all its short playing time - came over with every bit of the power and focus one could have hoped for. More ancient Greeks next year please! maybe The Trojan Women or Electra ?? Congrats all round!
David Lomas
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