Contemporary take on deconstructed Medea : a review

THEATRE: The New Dead: Medea Material. By Heiner Muller. Stella Electrika in association with La Boite Theatre Company, Brisbane, November 19. THERE has been a lot of intensity in independent theatre in Brisbane during the past year, as companies, production houses and producers have begun building new programs and platforms to support an expansion of pathways within the local theatre ecology. Audiences have been exposed to works signalling the diversity of what Brisbane theatre makers want to see on stage, from productions of new local and international pieces to new devised works, and the results of residencies and development programs. La Boite Theatre Company closes its inaugural indie season with a work that places it at the contemporary, experimental end of the spectrum. The New Dead: Medea Material is emerging director Kat Henry's interpretation of Heiner Muller's 1981 text Despoiled Shore Medea Material Landscape with Argonauts. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. Muller is known for his radical adaptations of historical dramas, from the Greeks to Shakespeare, and for deconstructed texts in which the characters - in this case, Medea - violently reject the familial, cultural and political roles society has laid out for them. Muller's combination of deconstructed characters, disconnected poetic language and constant references to aspects of popular culture and the Cold War politics he sought to abjure make his texts challenging to realise. The poetry entices but the density, together with the increasing distance of the Cold War politics in the texts, leaves contemporary directors with clear decisions to make about how to adapt these open texts. In The New Dead: Medea Material, Henry works with some interesting imagery and conceptual territory. Lucinda Shaw as Medea, Guy Webster as Jason and Kimie Tsukakoshi as King Creon's daughter Glauce, the woman for whom Jason forsakes his wife Medea, each reference different aspects of contemporary culture. Medea is a bitter, drunken, satin-gowned diva with bite; Jason - first seen lounging in front of the television with a beer in an image reminiscent of Sarah Kane's in-yer-face characterisation of Hippolytus in Phaedra's Love - has something of the rock star about him; and Glauce is a roller-skating, karaoke-singing, pole-dancing young temptress. The production is given a contemporary tone, dominated by Medea's twisted love and loss, rather than by any commentary on her circumstances. Its strength is the aesthetic Henry creates, supported by live electro-pop music, a band stage that stands as a metaphor for Jason's sea voyage, and multimedia that inserts images of the story unfolding beyond these characters' speeches as sorts of subconscious flashes. While Tsukakoshi is engaging throughout, there are moments when Shaw and Webster's performances - particularly in the songs - are diminished by a lack of clarity. The result is a piece that, while slightly lacking in its realisation at times, undoubtedly flags Henry's facility as an emerging director and what she wants to bring to the Brisbane theatre scene.

Legal myth-making: Medea and the legal representation of the feminine ‘other'

The Law operates by, and through, the creation of ideal benchmarks of conduct that are deemed to be representative of the behavioural norm. It is in this sense that it could be contended that the Law utilises, and relies on, myths in the same way as do other disciplines, notably psycho-analysis. It is possible to go even further and argue that the use of a created narrative mythology is essential to the establishment of a defined legal benchmark of behaviour by which the female defendant is assessed, judged and punished. While mythology expresses and symbolizes cultural and political behaviour, it is the Law that embodies and prescribes punitive sanctions. This element represents a powerful literary strand in classical mythology. This may be seen, for instance, in Antigone’s appeal to the Law as justification for her conduct, as much as in Medea’s challenge to the Law though her desire for vengeance. Despite its image of neutral, objective rationality, the Law, in creating and sustaining the ideals of legally-sanctioned conduct, engages in the same literary processes of imagination, reason and emotion that are central to the creation and re-creation of myth. The (re-)presentation of the Medea myth in literature (especially in theatre) and in art, finds its echo in the theatre of the courtroom where wronged women who have refused to passively accept their place, have instead responded with violence. Consequently, the Medea myth, in its depiction of the (un)feminine, serves as a template for the Law’s judgment of ‘conventional’ feminine conduct in the roles of wife and mother. Medea is an image of deviant femininity, as is Lady Macbeth and the countless other un-feminine literary and mythological women who challenge the power of the dominant culture and its ally, the Law. These women stand opposed to the other dominant theme of both literature and Law: the conformist woman, the passive dupe, who are victims of male oppression – women such as Ariadne of Naxos and Tess of the D’Ubervilles – and who are subsequently consumed by the Law, much as Semele is consumed by the fire of Jupiter’s gaze upon her. All of these women, the former as well as the latter, have their real-life counterparts in the pages of the Law Reports. As Fox puts it, “these women have come to bear the weight of the cultural stereotypes and preconceptions about women who kill.”

Tragedy, Euripides, Melodrama: Hamartia, Medea, Liminality

This article examines socio-historical dimensions and cultural and dramaturgic implications of the Greek playwright Euripides’ treatment of the myth of Medea. Euripides gives voice to victims of adventurism, aggression and betrayal in the name of ‘reason’ and the ‘state’ or ‘polity.’ Medea constitutes one of the most powerful mythic forces to which he gave such voice by melodramatizing the disturbing liminality of Greek tragedy’s perceived social and cultural order. The social polity is confronted by an apocalyptic shock to its order and its available modes of emotional, rational and social interpretation. Euripidean melodramas of horror dramatize the violation of rational categories and precipitate an abject liminality of the tragic vision of rational order. The dramaturgy of Euripides’ Medea is contrasted with the norms of Greek tragedy and examined in comparison with other adaptations — both ancient and contemporary — of the myth of Medea, in order to unfold the play’s transgression of a tragic vision of the social polity.

Tres visiones de Medea.

Resumen en inglés

Medeae Medea forem! : zur Euripidesrezeption Ovids in den Heroides

In den Briefen 4, 6, 11 und 12 der Heroides hat Ovid direkt oder indirekt Figuren des Mythos zum Gegenstand seiner Dichtung gemacht, die den zeitgenössischen wie auch den heutigen Rezipienten insbesondere durch Tragödien des Euripides bekannt sind. Die zu Beginn dieser Arbeit dazu durchgeführte historische Analyse der grundsätzlichen Bedingungen der Rezeption der Tragödien des Euripides in der Zeit Ovids zeigt, dass der römische Dichter für ein intertextuelles Dichten in den Heroides die Werke des griechischen Tragikers als Prätexte nutzen konnte, da die Rezipienten über die theoretische und praktische Kompetenz verfügten, entsprechende Verweisungen zu identifizieren, diese in einem Prozess der intertextuellen Lektüre zu dekodieren und den Text auf diese Weise zu interpretieren. Eine Beschreibung dieses antiken literarischen Kommunikationsprozesses zwischen Ovid und seinen Rezipienten erfolgt dabei mit den Mitteln einer für die Euripidesrezeption Ovids konkretisierten Intertextualitätstheorie (Kapitel A.I und II). Die ausführlichen Interpretationen zu den Heroides-Briefen 12, 6, 4 und 11 sowie zur Rezeption des Medea-Prologs in verschiedenen Gedichten Ovids (Kapitel B.I bis V) zeigen, dass der römische Dichter verschiedene Formen intertextueller Verweisungen nutzt, um in den bekannten Geschichten von Medea, Hypsipyle, Phaedra und Canace bislang ungenutztes narratives Potential zu entdecken und auf dieser Grundlage eine alte Geschichte neu zu erzählen. Das in der Forschung bereits vielfach beschriebene Prinzip Ovids des idem aliter referre ist in den untersuchten Texten konkret darauf ausgerichtet, die aus den Tragödien bekannten Heroinen in einer bestimmten Phase ihrer Geschichte zu Figuren einer elegischen Welt werden zu lassen. Diese neu geschaffene elegische Dimension einer ursprünglich tragischen Geschichte dient dabei nicht einer umwertenden Neuinterpretation der bekannten tragischen Figur. Vielmehr lässt Ovid seine Briefe zu einem Teil des Mythos werden, zu einem elegischen Vorspiel der Tragödie, die einen durch Euripides vorgegebenen Rahmen des Mythos erweitern und damit zugleich zentrale Motive der tragischen Prätexte vorbereiten. Ovid gestaltet aus, was in dem von Euripides initiierten Mythos angelegt ist, und nutzt das elegische Potential der tragischen Erzählung, um das Geschehen und vor allem die Heroine selbst in seinem Brief zur Tragödie hinzuführen. Damit bereitet Ovid in den Heroides die weitere Entwicklung der äußeren tragischen Handlung vor, indem er vor allem eine innere Entwicklung der von ihm geschaffenen Briefschreiberin aufzeigt und auf diese Weise jeweils aus einer von ihm geschaffenen elegischen Frau jene tragische Heldin werden lässt, die den Rezipienten aus der jeweiligen Tragödie des Euripides bekannt ist. Die sich daraus notwendigerweise ergebenden Spannungen und Interferenzen zwischen den Erwartungen der Rezipienten und der Realität der von Ovid neu gestalteten Figur in ihrem elegischen Kontext werden von dem römischen Dichter produktiv genutzt und durch die im Text initiierte Entwicklung aufgehoben. So scheinen dann letztlich aus den Elegien Ovids die Tragödien des Euripides hervorzugehen.

[In Medea's gardens--two tales of colchicine]

Colchicine is a highly active alkaloid used in the treatment of acute inflammatory syndromes such as Mediterranean fever, M. Behçet or gouty arthritis. The two cases we present here illustrate exemplarily the pros and contras of colchicine therapy. In the first case, colchicine was successfully given for recurrent febrile attacks due to acute rheumatic fever. The second patient unfortunately had a fatal colchicine intoxication. The pharmacology of colchicine, the clinical features associated with overdose and the options for treatment are discussed. Colchicine should not be given in combination with macrolides, especially in patients with renal insufficiency.

Der erste Mord. Der Tod des Apsyrtos als Schlüsselmoment für moderne Interpretationen des Medea-Mythos: Jahnn, Pasolini, Wolf, Loher

Murderous Medea – following Euripides’ seminal tragedy countless authors and artists have depicted Medea as child-slaughtering outlaw and avenger. But the Medea myth is much more diverse and holds more depth than this. Medea’s path through her career as princess, magician, wife, mother and avengress opens with another abominable death: that of her brother Apsyrtos. This article focuses on how and why the death of Medea’s brother Apsyrtos has been examined and instrumentalised in modern adaptions of the myth by Hans Henny Jahnn, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Christa Wolf and Dea Loher. Whether guilty as charged but with sensible intentions to gain self-rule and show herself trustworthy or innocent of crime or murder but stricken with guilt and alienation, Medea’s involvement in her brother’s death seems to hold the key to modern interpretations of antiquity’s different strands of the Medea myth and its adaptability to modern concerns of subjectivity and emancipation.

Fanny Janauscheck als Medea, Rollenbild, in: Franz Grillparzer: Das goldene Vließ, 1862

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F00870

Rosa Poppe in verschiedenen Rollen: als Medea, Iphigenie, Sappho, Krimhild, Penthesilea, Maria Stuart

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F05821

Adele Sandrock als Medea, Rollenbild, Hüftbild

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F06122