Original id:
3648
Start date:
1 January 1999
Degree of relationship to ancient play:
Adaptation
Production notes:
Peter Brown notes that 'this was a spoken performance, faithful to Euripides, but omitting lines 214-409 and 627-865 (Medea's first speech and confrontation with Creon, and the Aegeus-scene and choral odes either side of it), in place of which a man walks out in front of the audience and perhaps gives a summary, and also - more remarkably - omitting from lines 1081 to the end, apparently without even giving a summary. There is then a lengthy discussion between members of the audience and (now on chairs on the stage) the summariser and another man who holds forth at some length, while the leading actors also sit on chairs on the stage but say nothing. The building has the air of a lecture theatre with raked seating, but with quite a large floor area on which they act on a platform. They perform in masks, and Medea achieves remarkable effects with the sleeves of her robe, particularly in her first confrontation with Jason'.
Media of production:
Reading/recitation
Languages:
Cantonese; Yue Chinese