Medea – A Contemporary Take

Anna (Rose Byrne in the Medea role) has just been released from a yearlong stay at the mental institution to which she was committed by husband, Lucas (Bobby Cannavale in the Jason role) whom she’d methodically poisoned. Lucas has moved on, ‘formalizing’ the affair that ostensibly set Anna off. He’s set up house elsewhere with boss Christopher’s (Dylan Baker) 24 year-old daughter, Clara (Madeline Weinstein), and sons, Edgar (Jolly Swag) and Gus (Orson Hong), of whom he’s secured sole custody. (The kids evidently know nothing of mom’s crime.)

It’s apparent that despite a cocktail of medicine, Anna is far from stabilized. Though obvious to us, social worker Elsbeth (Jordan Boatman) is oblivious. (Another 24 year-old? Point?)  The heroine swings from cheerful, stalker-like insistence that work and family will resume as if nothing happened – “I’m not the woman I was when I did that to you” – to hysteria, with seductive, Machiavellian behavior between.

Contrivances begin by cajoling Lucas into staying in their house her first night back, albeit in the spare room, so the boys can adjust. “Have you seen her again?” she casually asks. “We’re not talking about that,” he snaps. Still, a wuss is a wuss. Lucas takes his first false step.

Told in no uncertain terms she can’t have her job back as director of the laboratory in which they both worked, Anna erupts. Later, she strikes back at Lucas telling him the prize he won in her absence was due to her research – that, in fact, like Euripides’ Medea, she created his reputation.

This isn’t difficult to believe. Perhaps if playwright/director Simon Stone had given Lucas a bit more backbone, we’d more readily buy devastation to come. That his new inamorata is just a nice girl, fits, but again misses opportunity for character interest.

Anna connives (malevolence is superbly written and acted), Clara puts her foot down, Christopher attempts to help, Lucas unwittingly vacillates. One very clever device is the boys making an autobiographical video of their family, intruding on privacy, eventually provoking events to crisis. Blood and, here, ashes, are potently manifest.

The adaptation is well written/conceived. Important aspects of Euripides’ play arrive cogent and unmistakable in contemporary terms. Then there’s the enormous video screen aspect. Having it both ways is impossible. While opportunity to observe actors’ faces close-up/enlarged enhances an emotional moment (Byrne’s reactive face is a marvel), distraction from immediate action ultimately cancels this out. (The positive exception here is Edgar’s video, shot beyond our sight, dramatically revealed.)

Omnipresent employment of this medium in today’s theater has gone overboard. It’s as if directors can’t wait to try out a new toy. What began as set replacement has morphed to that which productions imagine intensifies experience instead diverting one from the work of onstage actors.

As director, Simon Stone utilizes the stage well. Characters cover territory with motivation. Interaction is aesthetic as well as appropriate. Sudden moves jolt. Agonized screaming is never out of character. Pacing is excellent.

Rose Byrne offers a visceral, entirely credible performance. Vibrating with anger and determination, propelled by delusion, she’s a sight to behold. Physical expression is as vulnerable and brittle as emotion.

Bobby Cannavale does fine in the thankless role of perpetually pained Lucas.

Bob Cousins antiseptic white stage creates a fantasy aura, serving as video screen, emphasizing blood and inspired use of ashes.

Photos by Richard Termine
Opening: Bobby Cannavale, Madeline Weinstein (Clara), Rose Byrne

Medea
Written by Simon Stone after Euripides
Directed by Simon Stone
Through March 8, 2020
Harvey Theater at BAM Strong
651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn