Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman William I. Campbell Chairman of the Board Vice Chairman of the Board Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer presents Medea The Abbey Theatre Approximate BAM Harvey Theater running time: Oct 1-5, 8-12, 2002 at 7:30pm 1 hour and 25 Oct 5 & 12 at 2pm; Oct 6 at 3pm minutes with no Produced in association with intermission Max Weitzenhoffer, Roger Berlind, Old Vic Productions, Nica Burns for Really Useful Theaters, and Jedediah Wheeler Directed by Deborah Warner Written by Euripides Translated by Kenneth McLeish & Frederic Raphael Set designer Tom Pye Costume designer Jacqueline Durran Original lighting designer Peter Mumford Associate lighting designer Michael Gunning Sou ndsca pe Mel Mercier Sound designer David Meschter Cast Fiona Shaw as Medea Kirsten Campbell, Joyce Henderson, Derek Hutchinson, Rachel Isaac, Robin Laing, Pauline Lynch, Siobhan McCarthy, Joseph Mydell, Struan Rodger, Susan Salmon with Jonathan Cake as Jason Line Producer Really Useful Theatres / Donna Munday General Management Luna Group / Jill Dombrowski Tour Management Extremetaste, Ltd. / Jedediah Wheeler The Abbey Theatre Ben Barnes, Artistic Director BAM 20th Next Wave Festival and Kick-off Party are sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. Leadership support is provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust; and Rose M. Badgeley Charitable Trust. 21 ~~---- Cast Nurse Siobhan McCarthy in order of Tutor Robin Laing appearance Chorus Kirsten Campbell; Joyce Henderson, Rachel Isaac, Pauline Lynch, Susan Salmon Medea Fiona Shaw Kreon Struan Rodger Jason Jonathan Cake Aegeus Joseph Mydell Messenger Derek Hutchinson Luna Group Production supervision Christopher D. Buckley Production staff Production manager Greg Rowland Company manager Jill Dombrowski Deputy stage manager Samantha Lambourne Assistant stage manager Patricia McGregor Lighting supervisor David J. Lander Sound engineer Michael Van Sleen Wardrobe mistress Heather Patton Really Useful Theatres General manager Donna Munday production department Production assistants Briony Goodliffe, Stephanie Creed London production staff Children's director & casting director Jo Davies Production manager Jim Leaver Rehearsal company manager Rosalind Morgan-Jones Costume supervisor Sabine Lemaitre Assistant to the set designer Alan Bain For The Abbey Theatre Managing director Brian Jackson General manager Martin Fahy Executive secretary Marie Kelly P.A. secretary Ciara Flynn Production credits Additional casting Jodi Collins, C.S.A.; Carol Blanco Scenery Scott Fleary, Ltd.; PL Parsons and Company; Top of the Bill; Precision Glass & Mirror Paintshops John Campbell Scenic Studios, Paddy Hamilton Scenic Studios Original London production costume design Tom Rand Recorded vocals Celia Faherty Additional scenery Showman Fabricators Special effects equipment Jauchem & Meeh, Inc. Walkie talkies provided by Motorola Jonathan Cake's wedding shoes by Oliver Sweeney Special thanks Alison McArdle, Jonathan Ginsburg, Brian H. Goldstein Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw first created Medea for The Abbey Theatre in Dublin in May of 2000. A further expansion of this work was produced in London's West End in January of 2001 by Max Weitzenhoffer, Roger Berlind, Old Vic Productions, and Nica Burns for Really Useful Theaters. The current production was organized by Jedediah Wheeler for presentation by BAM's Next Wave Festival; The University Musical Society, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; ClearChannel Entertainment, Boston, MA; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; CAL Performances, University of California, Berkeley; and Le Theatre National de Chaillot, Paris, France. 22 \Alba's Wba _ Euripides (author) born in Attica in 484 BC, was Frederic Raphael (translation), an American-born, one of the figures-with Aeschylus and British-educated writer, is the author of 19 novels Sophocles-who made fifth century Athens pre­ and four short story collections including Richard's eminent in the history of world drama. He was a Things, Glittering Prizes, Oxbridge Blues, and prol ific writer whose plays were performed at the most recently Coast to Coast, as well as screen­ Great Dionysia, the Athenians' major drama festi­ plays for John Schlesinger's Darling, for which he val. Described by Aristotle as lithe most tragic of won an Academy Award, and Stanley Donen's Two poets," Euripides is best known for his tragedies. for the Road. He has adapted for the screen the His continuing popularity and influence is attested works of Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding to by the survival of 17 of his plays, among them Crowd), Iris Murdoch (A Severed Head), Henry Medea, The Trojan Women, Hippolytus, Iphigenia James (Daisy Miller), and Arthur Schnitzler in Tauris, Orestes, The Bacchae, and Electra. In (Traumnovelle, which was filmed as Eyes Wide his lifetime, however, Euripides elicited great oppo­ Shut). Raphael has also co-translated several sition and controversy with his unorthodox por­ works for the stage with Kenneth McLeish, includ­ traits of women and his focus on the individual, ing Medea. He divides his time between England rather than the community, in an age which ven­ and France. erated the ideal of civic duty and public office. His unpopularity among his contemporary writers is Fiona Shaw (Medea) was born and educated in clear from the attacks made on him in the come­ Ireland. After a degree in philosophy at the dies of Aristophanes. In 408 BC, he left Athens University College Cork, she went to R.A.D.A. and and went into voluntary exile at the court of was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal. Theater Archelaus in Macedonia where he died in 406 credits at RNT include Julia in The Rivals, Shen Te BC. Sophocles, who outlived him by only a few Shui in The Good Person of Sichuan (Olivier months, was said to have dressed his next chorus Award for Best Actress), the Woman in Machinal in mourning as a mark of respect. (Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Actress), Millamant in The Way of the World, Kenneth McLeish (translation) was born in 1940 the title roles in the controversial Richard /I and and educated at Bradford Grammar School and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and The Power Worcester College, Oxford. He began his career as Book by Jeanette Winterson. For the RSC her work a schoolmaster at Watford Grammar School include Philistines, As You Like It, Les Liasons (1963-7) and also taught at Bedales (1969­ Dangereuses, Mephisto, Beatrice in Much Ado 73) before becoming a full-time writer in 1975. About Nothing, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, He died in 1997. McLeish was an author, transla­ Mistress Carol in Hyde Park, Katharine in The tor, and playwright. His published works (over 80) Taming of the Shrew, and Electra (Laurence include The Good Reading Guide, Shakespeare's Olivier and London Critics' Awards). At Old Vic People, The Theatre of Aristophanes, Companion Theatre, Shaw performed Rosalind in As You Like to the Arts in the Twentieth Century, Myth, The It (Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress); at Listener's Guide to Classical Music, Crucial Greenwich Theatre, the title role in Mary Stewart; Classics (both with Valerie McLeish), and The at Garrick Theatre, Footfalls; at Abbey Theatre, Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought (General Dublin and Playhouse Theatre, London, Hedda Editor). McLeish's translations have been pub­ Gabler (London Critics' Award); Jeanne d'Arc au lished and widely performed. They include almost Bucher at BBC Proms, and at Lincoln Center, the whole of Ancient Greek drama (47 plays), a Robert Wilson's 003. She has performed T.S. dozen farces by Feydeau and Labiche, six plays by Eliot's The Waste Land in Europe, North America, Ibsen, and works by Horvath, Jarry, Holberg, and Australia (New York Drama Desk Award for Moliere, and Strindberg. In the U.K. his transla­ Best Actress). Films include My Left Foot, tions have been performed by the RNT and many Mountains of the Moon-Bob Rafelson, Three other companies. His original plays include Men and a Little Lady-Disney, Undercover Omma, Orpheus, Iliad, I Will if You Will, Just Do Blues-Herbert Ross, The Last September dir. It, One for the Money, and Vice at the Vicarage Deborah Warner, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers (written for Frankie Howerd). Stone-Warner Brothers. Shaw has been awarded an honorary D.UTT Trinity College Dublin, in 2001, and an honorary LLD National University of Ireland 1999. In 2002 Shaw was awarded 23 \Albo's \Albo _ LOfficier des Artes et des Lettres by the French Opera (Fidelia), and recently directed Untitled and government, and was awarded a C.B.E. Arigato Zaisho for the Circus Space and Tea for (Commander of the British Empire) in the New Two, One for Me with Kicking the Moon. Years honours list. Derek Hutchinson (The Messenger) has been Jonathan Cake (Jason) has performed roles involved in numerous productions directed by including Jason in Medea at the Queens Theatre Deborah Warner: King Lear (Kent), Coriolanus in the West End, and in Baby Doll at the RNT and (Cominius), Titus Andronicus (Lucius) at RSC, and in the West End (Best Actor Barclays Theatre Electra (Pylades) with Fiona Shaw, and King Lear Awards 2000). Other productions include Mill on (Edgar) at RNT. Other work at the RNT include the Floss (Shared Experience) dirs. Nancy Meckler Richard III, Arcadia, Under Milk Wood, and and Polly Teale, and One Over the Eight Napoli Milianaria , and for RSC: Measure for (Scarborough) dir. Alan Ayckbourn. For the RSC, Measure, Julius Caesar, Taming of the Shrew, The Cake has performed in Wallenstein, Tamburlaine, Churchill Play, The Family Reunion, A The Odyssey, As You Like It, and The Beggars Warwickshire Testimony, and Prince of Hamberg. Opera. Leading television roles include Dr. He recently played Lord Robert Cecil in Elizabeth Mengele in Gisella Perl for Showtime, Wellington Rex at Birmingham Rep.