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Medea

1 hr 20 mins, no interval

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Photo by Sanne Peper

Live from Amsterdam, streamed exclusively for Adelaide Festival / Internationaal Theater Amsterdam

We broke down the experience of attending an international performance into its essential parts: you have to travel to a theatre to see a specific show, at a specific time and date, with lots of strangers around you, united in a compact space to see the same event, performed live, as a group. There is a potent exchange between artists and audience throughout the show that reaches its peak at the end of the night, when the performers look into the audience to take their curtain call and you acknowledge the shared experience with applause.

In 2021, we are delighted to say that we’ll meet all those criteria. The only difference is that the performance is happening, in real time, on the other side of the world.

Unique, specially commissioned performances on European mornings, by some of the most lauded artists of our time in theatre, music and dance, coming to you in state-of-the-art vision and sound within milliseconds, on four unforgettable nights, each introduced by the director or principal artist.

Country Arts SA Chief Executive/Executive Director Anthony Peluso said, “The Adelaide Festival of the Arts has selected these amazing and unique experiences from around the world. I’m very excited that in 2021 Country Arts SA will connect regional South Australian audiences to artists in Amsterdam, Berlin and London in real time. This is a new experience for everyone – a result of the times. Be the first to share in the new magic of live theatre and music on screens at the Middleback Arts Centre and Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre.”

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On paper, Australian director Simon Stone directs the classics: Thyestes, The Wild Duck, Three Sisters, Yerma. But while the titles remain, he and his actors, through improvisation and deep research, transform canonical plays into searingly immediate works that have taken audiences by storm in London, New York and Europe.

Medea, created for Ivo van Hove’s Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, is one of his most in-demand. Euripides’ tragedy of 430BC was a popular hit in Ancient Greece and, while the predicament of its protagonist has been refracted through the lenses of every age’s prevailing morality, it remains timeless: a brilliant woman sacrifices everything for love of a man but, after bearing two children, finds herself of no further use to him and is expected to accept his choice of a new younger partner. Context: ubiquitous and relatable. Crime: unthinkable and unforgivable, but ever-fascinating.

In this sensational production, a contemporary story, based on that of Debora Green (the American oncologist convicted in 1996 of poisoning her husband with ricin and then killing two of her children in a house fire), is so infused with the distilled essence of the original that it doesn’t just retain, it regains its primal impact.

You will see it with its acclaimed original cast – including award-winning Marieke Heebink in an extraordinary performance – direct from Amsterdam in Dutch with surtitles. Once only. Don’t miss this.

“A funny, brutal and raw masterpiece… easily the best version of Medea that I’ve seen on the London stage in two decades”
– The Guardian

 “This is world-class theatre. A first-rate adaptation, by a first-class director, powered by first-class performances. Exquisitely, brutally bold.”
– The Stage

 “You don’t go into a production of Medea under any allusion about how the play will end but Stone and his cast are brilliant at keeping you guessing how exactly they’re going to get you there.”
– What’s on Stage

“Always entertaining, horrifying and spectacular, Medea is an important milestone of contemporary theatre.”
– The Up Coming

Performed in Dutch with English subtitles.

Cast & Crew

After Euripides

Written and directed by Simon Stone
With Joy Delima, Alexander Elmecky, Aus Greidanus jr., Marieke Heebink, Eva Heijnen, Bart Slegers, Titus Theunissen, Sonny van Utteren
Translation Vera Hoogstad, Peter van Kraaij
Dramaturgy Peter van Kraaij
Scenography Bob Cousins
Light Design Bernie van Velzen
Sound Stefan Gregory
Costumes An D’Huys
Private Producer Joost and Marcelle Kuiper

Cast

Marieke Heebink – Anna
Aus Greidanus jr. – Lucas
Eva Heijnen – Clara
Bart Slegers – Christopher
Alexander Elmecky – Herbert
Joy Delima – Marie-Louise
Titus Theunissen – Gijs
Sonny van Utteren – Edgar