Palm Beach State College

Medea (2014)

Theatre Show Critique

Francisco Manuel Rivera-Vera

Theatre Appreciation THE100

Professor Matthew Gitkin

Medea (2014) Critique

After watching Titanic the Musical for my previous critique, I’d relaxed on my bed,

empty bowl of chipotle and cat thoroughly bored of me, and contemplated what other shows I

should watch for my extra credit critiques, and two specifically stood out to me for two vastly

different reasons. Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes from 2021 for how little I knew

about it, and the show I’ll be giving my critique on here, National Theatre Live’s 2014 rendition

of Medea made by Ben Power from the original Medea by Euripides, for how well I remembered

the source material. Carrie Cracknell and Ross MacGibbon directed the production, while Will

Gregory and Allison Goldfrapp handled the musical score. However, no awards were won for

this production, as far as I was able to find, despite how many different awards I believe that they

were well entitled to earn. Regarding how notable the actors are, the actress for Medea, Helen

McCrory, is quite well known, primarily for her parts in Harry Potter as the mother of Malfoy

and in Peaky Blinders as Polly Grey; while Michaela Coel and Danny Sapani, the actors for the

Nurse and Jason respectively, both appear in both Black Panther movies, with Michaela in the

forefront as Aneka while Jason plays a more background role as one of the Border Tribe elders,

though both of them stand out far more in Medea, and are absolutely captivating to watch. Even

from the start of the play, the emotions and turmoil are in full swing, and you get a clear picture

from even the first monologue as to how this will end in nothing but tragedy. Still, it just cements

further and further how hard it is to stop watching this trainwreck unfold before our very eyes.

And, adhering to my expectations of the play of Medea on its own, this play was fantastic, with a

few minor details that just didn't settle right with me, be it for something simply making much

sense for what the actors are saying or movements detracting from my focus on the plot to
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something completely extraneous. But overall, the rendition I reviewed today was brilliant, and

I’m beyond glad to have found such a well-crafted version of the story of Medea.

The play opens with the nurse, who, at this point, the audience is completely clueless as

to who she is, giving an opening monologue about how the land isn’t the home of our

protagonists and how their moving in has ruined the city she lives in, claiming Jason to be a “He-

Devil” and describing Medea as someone who bewitches men and slaughtered even family for

Jason. Both of them start very clearly as traitors to their own familial lines and invaders. Still,

Jason explicitly abandons his wife and children for the daughter of King Creon, which sets him

firmly as the villain of this story, whereas Medea as the woman who is supported by the gods

due to the distress she’s suffered under his foolish decisions, and note that I say decisions and not

mistakes; Because he’s fully aware and self-justifying to his own choice of doing this, despite

how much it makes him an oath-breaker, for reasons that sound noble at first glance, but ring

hollow as the story goes on, specifically when he gets fooled by the easiest platitudes from

Medea, towards the mid-point of her scheme to get her retribution. Despite that wave of emotion

that I’d just begun to grasp from the opening monologue, it wasn’t nearly over yet, as it gets

swiftly followed up by Medea wailing like a banshee in the forest, as the chorus (seemingly

filling in for the muses, who I’d admittedly thought were just “voices in her head” until the very

end) tries to cool her down, to very little avail. This is followed by it somehow getting worse,

with King Creon making it worse and sealing his fate by giving her one day to “find a way out,”

Jason cementing the idea that he is the true villain here, trying to justify and gaslight Medea into

accepting this awful fate that he’s putting her and her children through. King Aegeas, being one

of the few noble people in this story and offering to grant sanctuary to her and her children for all
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the horrors she’s had to deal with and, accidentally cements one of the most tragic elements of

the play, the double filicide of her and Jason’s children, by both giving her an exit strategy and

giving one of the, admittedly, funniest death flags I’ve seen so far, to them both. This all

culminates in her plan going as intended, where she gives the children a poisoned cloak for

Jason’s new wife, convinces Jason that she’s no longer vengeful, and kills the children after the

new wife and King Creon are both killed by the cloak’s poison. Towards the end, Jason gets told

by the Chorus that she not only killed his new wife, but his children too, to which he flies into a

rage, only to be put in his place and reminded that this was entirely his fault and had he not

broken his oath to the gods and to her, in marriage, they wouldn’t be anywhere close to this

horrific situation.

The set itself is an interesting set, comprising of both a “home” section with a “forest”

section behind it with a silent ballroom section above it all. While I would say, this is a simple

set, with nothing too notable about it, if it were just that, but both Home and Forest sets are

actually always together, which gives both of them a rather interesting dynamic, where the

slightest movement of one set can actually completely change your perspective. And while I

would enjoy that, both sets being together actually poses an issue, they’re making the home

appear more modern, which, while it sounds like an unusual issue to have with a remake to a

story like this, the lack of script change compounds it into a legitimate issue with direction and

set. And while the dialogue remains functionally the same, the setting clearly isn’t, with cameras,

cigars, and cardboard boxes, all alongside talk of the gods, oaths, and greek kings; making the

actual setting itself confusing, between an old greek home, and a modern house done entirely in

old greek style, akin to the 1996 Romeo and Juliet movie, but without the goofiness to help it
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feel more at home. That said, disregarding the slight irregularity, the setting is quite visually

pleasing overall; Tom Scutt, the designer, absolutely nailed it with the perspective-shifting aspect

of the set.

The lighting was done very simply by Lucy Carter, which helps give the setting far more

of a focus than any of the lighting, making it almost invisible, beyond certain key scenes, like the

filicide scene or the intro and outro monologues. Ultimately, they kept it simple and safe, and

while I'd generally find that boring, it didn’t take away from the story, unlike the set, and I, of all

people, can absolutely appreciate a good meal done well over a great meal done poorly.

The costume supervisor Micheal Roff did a fascinating job in achieving both seemingly

intended goals of telling the story of Medea, while also leaning into a more modern setting with

the outfits. Medea’s brown tank top and sweatpants gave off an intense negativity when paired

against King Creon, King Aegeas, and even Jason’s attire, which were all varying degrees of

fancy suit and tie, the former and latter of which, in literal wedding attire. The only one matching

that was the Nurse, who could best be described as wearing a “Service Uniform”, which was

extremely fitting for her character, all the way to the end, where it feels more like mourning

attire, with how heavy everything became. Overall, it's a great design, through and through, even

if it does add on to the somewhat disjointed feeling of time.

As I previously mentioned, the music, done by the duo of Will Gregory and Allison

Goldfrapp, was overall fantastic and haunting, just as it should be for a story like this. The story
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itself isn’t a musical, however. Hence, the music, thankfully, always took a backseat to the scene

it was backing, be it for the hysteria that Medea was showing, the Filicide, or the final moments,

where Medea walks away with the body bags. Ultimately, while not too important of a detail, all

things considered, the music still delivered all that it needed to and then some.

The two directors, Carrie Cracknell and Ross MacGibbon, certainly had an interesting

take on the story of Medea. Not one I entirely agree with, as previously stated, but one that does

work quite nicely for what it is. Choosing a semi-modern take on Madea, with literal cardboard

boxes to move out with and a modern home setting, but retaining the characters and dialogue

usually wouldn’t work without good decision-making from the Directors, and yet, because they

made excellent calls throughout the entirety of the play, such as the frantic cigar scene towards

the beginning, the photo the kids took with their father or the body bags that literally weigh down

on Medea’s back on her way towards Athens. So, ultimately, while I have personal issues with

some storytelling decisions, I can say without question that the Directors did a fantastic job.

Overall, while I would’ve made some choices that differ from the material before me, I

can say with certainty that this version of the story is absolutely worth a watch. I highly

encourage anyone who enjoys Greek stories, revenge stories, or the 1996 Romeo and Juliet

movie to give this a watch or two since it’s clearly worth it. Though as for how I will end my

thoughts on this, I’ll refer to the words of the Nurse. “First, Silence. Then, Darkness.”