Writers: Adelaide Leonard and Bobby Halvorson, after Euripides
Director: Daniel Wallentine
We all know that Medea kills her children, and so with the ending never in doubt, modern updates of Euripides’ play must focus on what drives her to commit such a horrific act. Rachel Cusk’s rewrite at the Almedia in 2015 had a chorus of Islington yummy mummies judging Medea’s version of motherhood. In this new account at the atmospheric COLAB Tunnels by Adelaide Leonard and Bobby Halvorson, the chorus is done away with, and the story is now set in New Mexico. The characterisation is strong, but the end is confusing.
Leonard is the only actor, and yet she confidently switches between Maddie (Medea), Jay (Jason), Ashley (Glauce) and Austin (Aegeus). Medea’s two sons are turned into a single daughter, Bella. Maddie is the daughter of a cult leader. She escaped the community and is now holed up in a house in Santa Fe. To eke out a living, she livestreams her healing powers on Instagram, although it’s a surprise she has any followers, so lacklustre are her broadcasts.
Perhaps it’s just the makeshift space of the COLAB Tunnels, but the play’s location is very different to Greek palaces. Maddie appears to be lower-class, and she’s behind in the rent with the threat of debt collectors knocking on her door. Jay is rough in his workman’s jacket, waking a dishevelled Maddie to tell her that he’s moving in with his new girlfriend, Ashley. Reluctantly, Maddie lets him leave, and really only puts up a fight when he announces that he’s taking their teenage daughter with him.
While Leonard’s portrayal of Maddie allows the audience to see the depth of her love for Bella, Maddie’s desperation for Jay is not so clear. In a change from the original, it’s Bella she misses and yearns for rather than Jay. When Maddie tells Ashley (a wonderfully optimistic Californian) that she is using her healing powers to bring Jay back, we don’t believe her. We’ve seen no evidence.
So with all the focus on Bella, the final scene doesn’t quite work, and it’s unclear what has actually happened, especially as everything before this has been depicted lucidly. Leonard is excellent in all her roles, giving them solid definition. However, the character of best-selling author Austin brings little to the table.
With just a few lights and sound effects, Daniel Wallentine’s direction is suitably economic, and with the audience so close to the action, this staging of Medea, at the end of her tether, is intimate and claustrophobic.
Runs until 27 September 2025
