The Stage

Medea

Published Thursday 4 February 2010 at 11:30 by Andrew Blades

Northern Broadsides specialises in direct, uncluttered productions of classical and Shakespearean drama. This new version of Medea, scripted by one of the UK’s most prominent poets, certainly lives up to the company’s manifesto - it is considerably more accessible than much Greek tragedy. However, at times, the colloquial touches go too far in disrupting the grandeur that might help us make sense of Euripides’ extremes. The thinking behind the Chorus’ folksy harmonica ditties is understandable, but elsewhere, needless slanginess (the routine replacement of “children” with “kids”, for example) and expletives sound an odd note amidst the more poetic diction, risking bathos where there might have otherwise been awe or horror.

Nina Kristofferson (Medea) in Medea at Oxford Playhouse Photo: Tristram Kenton

This is a pity, as the central performances are crisp and coruscating. Nina Kristofferson’s Medea is a creature of fire and ice, one minute lacerating the ears of the Corinthians with vengeful invective, the next all kittenish as she wheedles and beseeches them. It is a fascinating reading, seemingly caught between the pantomimic and the otherworldly, and Tom Paulin’s script is at its best here, probing into the deeper and darker reasoning behind Medea’s ostracism, the otherness that has both attracted and repelled her intimates. Vowing to use dark arts against her husband and children, Kristofferson revels in the more incantatory, voodoo-like scenes, making the stage her own.

Still, this production isn’t always entirely sure whether it wants to be sincere or ironic. The language is certainly accessible, but emotional connection may ultimately prove more elusive.