This is certainly the year not just for Greek Tragedy, but for plays that take some
of the mythology's most famous stories and rewrite them in a new way. The Gate's
Medea opens just as
the Almeida's nears the end of its run, and while that
interpretation - one I liked less the more I thought about it - sidelined the
story's most notorious victims, to the point of not caring whether they were
actually dead or not by the end, this one puts them centre stage. Writer Kate
Mulvany and writer-director Anne-Louise Sarks tell the story from the bedroom shared
by serious pre-teen Leon (Bili Keogh, alternating with Keir Edkins-O'Brien) and his
hyper little brother Jasper (Samuel Menhinick, alternating with Bobby Smallridge.)
They play, argue and discuss - tentatively - the conversation going on downstairs
between their parents, which they are vaguely aware is about the future of their
marriage. They're to stay in their room while their parents talk; the ominous first
sound we hear is them being locked in by their mother.
