One of the thrilling things of being in London is the access you have to theatre and actors. Offered the opportunity to see the latest version of Medea by Euripides in a new version by Ben Powers, starring Helen McCrory, it was as exciting for DIANE DE BEER to speak to the author and sit in on an hour-long talk with the actress about this mammoth work which will be on local screens as the latest National Theatre Live presentation:
IN THE programme, Edith Hall, a scholar of Greek Literature, writes that Medea is the most “alarming and haunting of Greek tragic heroines, indeed of all Greek tragic protagonists, including men”.
She argues that she is also the only Greek tragic murderer who decides to kill during the course of the play, forcing the appalled audience to watch every step she takes in her grim psychological journey.
“Despite Lady Macbeth, there is no female role in Western theatre of such ambiguity, complexity and depth,” she concludes.
“I have been adapting the original script for years,” says Ben Power (pictured), who is responsible for this latest version based on the Euripides text.
“But,” he goes on, “even if it started many years ago, long before I joined the National Theatre, the moment feels right now.”
It also meant that he, director Carrie Cracknell (who McCrory describes as very visual in her approach) and Helen McCrory could all work on it together, and a collaboration is what Powers believes worked for this particular production. Everything was developed specifically with this particular production in mind.
One of the big questions was how to make the play accessible for contemporary audiences, but with the full team on board (including a composer and a choreographer), the landscape changed completely.
MANY might not recognise or know this British actress but in familiar parlance she portrayed Cherie Blair in both the 2006 film The Queen and the 2010 film The Special Relationship. She was also cast as Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films when she had to pull out as Bellatrix Lestrange earlier (replaced by Helena Bonham Carter) because she was pregnant.
In 2011, she starred in Martin Scorsese’s family mystery film Hugo as Mama Jeanne and as Clair Dowar in the James Bond film, Skyfall. But one can understand why she is an obvious choice for this latest Medea because apart from anything else, she has this astonishing voice. “It is quite deep,” she says and she took it down even deeper to show the strength of the woman she was portraying.
She hadn’t read Medea before being offered the part, and in flirtatious manner, she says to the audience, “I was flattered to play the title!”
But seriously, and she cannot be anything but, it’s a harrowing play as it tells the story of a woman who kills her children for the ultimate revenge on her deserting husband.
“I had to teach myself to act differently,” she says of playing what has been described as the most tragic woman of all. As she would normally have pretended to be Medea to get under her skin, she knew she would have to use a different approach. With two young children of her own (another salacious titbit, she’s married to Homeland’s Damien Lewis), she knew she would have to find another way in.
“I read everything about the work that I could find to educate myself but also went to see a psychotherapist to talk about the whole sanity/insanity perspective,” she explains. “I would have to separate myself and try to find a way to say what I had to say,” she explains because of a mother who talks about the killing of her children. “It is a matter of technique and I walk a knife’s edge all the time.”
She’s right, because that’s the thing that the play turns on, a woman who has the ability to kill her children to punish her errant husband.
But there are aids, like the look of the production and her personal attire. At the beginning she enters the room in her husband’s clothes. This is done specifically because Medea is talking about disenfranchisement. Dressing in the clothes of the man who betrayed her is also about giving away and losing her power.
And when McCrory starts talking about Medea’s state of mind, the actress is very clear. She’s not insane but neither is she bad. It’s not that simplistic. “She has been driven to desperate and wicked ways,” she says. What she is doing is sane and absolutely instinctive.
It is the back story that is important. You’re talking about a woman who has given up everything to be with her husband. She has gone into exile, found herself with a people who don’t want her and even killed her brother for the man she loves. And then the father of her children betrays her and turns his back on her. “This is premeditated murder without insanity yet it has been proven that grief does cause a chemical imbalance,” says McCrory. “I think it could have made her emotionally extreme. Her sense of loyalty and turning against someone was anathema to her,” she underlined.
She feels that the play is a cautionary tale. “Be careful how you treat your women and how you rule,” she believes the playwright is arguing. He also understands that for her to kill her children is self-mutilation. “She’s been put in such an outrageous position and because of her suffering, she earns suffering,” explains McCrory as she quotes one of the lines Medea uses to her husband: “I bled them out for you”. That says everything about the state of where her head was.
How does McCrory go about playing something as intense as Medea night after night? Coming on to stage barefoot for this particular lecture and – this was only a day or two before opening night – but during previews at the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre, she had injured, and slightly concussed herself the previous night on stage. But being the pro she is, she was there to engage with an audience about the work and running through her pre-performance schedule. “I think about it from the moment I wake up,” she says. “At 5pm, I read the script and then I’m smoking (and she apologises for that indiscretion!) and thinking different accents.”
And then it’s on to the stage where all hell breaks loose.
In the future, one of her dreams is a comedy. And following Medea, that makes perfect sense. In fact, she has begged the playwright to write her one. But then there’s also Shakespeare for a couple in real life to fabricate on stage. “Antony and Cleopatra is one I could do with my husband who is an actor. We could have some fun knocking each other about.”
With the actual filming which is broadcast live (not locally), nothing will change. Naturally they will be aware but once the audience is there, that’s where their energy goes. “I try to honour and serve the script that Ben has written,” she says. “The Greeks have an extraordinary understanding of grief, pain and misery,” she concludes.
Go watch it. NT Live offers audiences all around the world these extraordinary opportunities.
BEN POWER
IN THE programme, Edith Hall, a scholar of Greek Literature, writes that Medea is the most “alarming and haunting of Greek tragic heroines, indeed of all Greek tragic protagonists, including men”.
She argues that she is also the only Greek tragic murderer who decides to kill during the course of the play, forcing the appalled audience to watch every step she takes in her grim psychological journey.
“Despite Lady Macbeth, there is no female role in Western theatre of such ambiguity, complexity and depth,” she concludes.
“I have been adapting the original script for years,” says Ben Power, who is responsible for this latest version based on the Euripides text.
“But,” he goes on, “even if it started many years ago, long before I joined the National Theatre, the moment feels right now.”
It also meant that he, director Carrie Cracknell (who McCrory describes as very visual in her approach) and Helen McCrory could all work on it together, and a collaboration is what Powers believes worked for this particular production. Everything was developed specifically with this particular production in mind.
One of the big questions was how to make the play accessible for contemporary audiences, but with the full team on board (including a composer and a choreographer), the landscape changed completely.
“We had to understand Medea’s grief,” explains Power, and that was the aspect that was focused on most particularly. How could a woman, if not insane, kill her children? And isn’t that the question that most plagues people?
While they went the medical route to try to understand the driving force behind this woman who is able to kill her children to take revenge on her husband, they also wanted to retain the complexity and magnitude of the story, which is shattering whichever way you look at it, and that was an aspect of the play they did not want to be diminished.
One of the other important questions was when to set the play. The look is modern, and one could pick a time anywhere from the 1950s and beyond, but Powers says they didn’t specify the period, as long as audiences could buy into the here and now.
“What we needed was for the characters not to lose their truth,” he says. The exciting thing for him was to be engaged in the production.
Because of this particular company of people, the level of emotional engagement was maintained from beginning to end. “I have really been lucky,” he says.
It’s about the script flying from your head to the stage, to listen to the words being spoken, to it coming alive. It’s all of that which makes this playwright smile.
“We’re all so excited to be working on this kind of production,” he says.
And everyone in theatre is wondering about the future, because the National Theatre is in the process of changing directors, with the hugely successful Nicholas Hytner to be replaced by Rufus Norris in April 2015.
Hytner’s run has been magnificent, but these huge institutions instinctively understand that there has to be a constant changing of the guard.
Sad as everyone might be to lose a favoured son, “a change of leadership is important”, admits Power. “It means that they change the questions.”
And that’s how the world and theatre keeps going round and round.
Medea screens at Cinema Nouveau in Joburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, and at Ster-Kinekor Blue Route in Tokai, Cape Town, on October 4, 8 & 9 at 7.30pm, October 5 at 2.30pm, and at The Fugard, Cape Town, on October 19 at 11am. Running time is 1 hour and 30 minutes, with no interval.