Medea – Actors’ Preparation – Questions of Character
Director’s notes to the company concerning the character of Medea:
Written before the rehearsal process began
1. Thoughts and questions about the character of Medea:
What ‘facts’, and clues, about Medea are contained in the text? And what are the questions that arise from those clues?
When does Medea decide to do what? When does she become trapped (by her own trap)? The written text of the play is only explicit about the development of her plans at certain moments. Much is left open to interpretation.
This ‘hidden play’ definitely needs to be clear in our own minds. Our choices will hugely affect Medea’s subtext and a sense of her inner journey. How clear do we want the ‘hidden play’ to be in the minds of the audience? John Harrison points out that the name Medea means ‘to plot’. In a way, the devising of her plot might be seen as the plot of the play. (See The Hidden Play for a possible outline of Medea’s plot.)
2. What are the key questions in relation to the character of Medea that the text leaves open for us to decide?
For example:
To what extent do we want our audiences to be sympathetic to Medea’s character? Certainly, overall in the play, there is a change in the way we perceive her (as there is in the way the Chorus relate to her). This change seems to occur significantly in the middle of the play, after Aegeus has left, in Episode 3, when we learn of Medea’s plan to kill her children. As suggested in the notes relating to Aegeus, this central scene is flanked on either side with the two scenes between Medea and Jason. (See Director’s notes to the company concerning Aegeus.) Perhaps there can be a shift in the audience’s sympathy between these two scenes, and a further shift in the Exodos?
Which are Medea’s most ‘public’ moments? Are these ‘public’ moments ones of revelation or concealment? Perhaps it’s useful to think of Medea as wearing a series of masks - which both conceal and reveal – in these ‘public’ moments? Episode by episode, perhaps its also useful to wonder what she is concealing and what she is revealing in her ‘public’ moments?
Which are Medea’s most ‘private’ moments? When might these ‘private’ moments be glimpsed? (See Rite.)
What is Medea’s inner emotional journey? To what extent does she try to hide it? To what extent do we want her inner journey to be clear to an audience?
What are the conflicts inside her and when do they chiefly occur? Is there sometimes, more than one conflict going on inside her at a time? Perhaps for example, in Episode 5, her inner conflict is not so much between ‘reason’ and ‘emotion’ as between two opposing ‘reasons’ and two opposing ‘emotions’?
What responsibility does Medea bear for what happened? Perhaps its useful to think of her as both an ‘actor’ – someone who makes things happen; and also a ‘reactor’ - an improviser responding to circumstances and her social context. Episode by episode, perhaps it is useful to clarify when she is consciously employing a tactic to get what she wants; and when she is taken surprise by events?
3. Movement, Voice and Image.
Some of the important areas to think about are:
Individual character movements What are the physical characteristics of Medea, her age, body shape, emotional energy, way of walking and her individual gestures? What is the shifting picture of ‘womanhood’ that she presents? There are moments in the text that clearly suggest her vulnerability - and others in which she appears as a warrior. When do you think these might be? Perhaps we can explore them and experiment with embodying gradual transformations, as well as sudden juxtapositions?
Individual vocal characteristics
What is Medea’s tone towards each of the other characters?
What tone does she use towards the Boys and how does it change?
What tone does she use towards Jason and how does it change?
If she addresses the Chorus and/ or the audience does she alter her tone?
Does she wear a series of vocal masks?
When might we hear her voice without any dissembling? Which are the moments? Which are the scenes?
Touch
How much power does Medea have over each of the other characters? How much does the balance of power swing, and when, with each of them? Perhaps there might be a moments within each episode when she might physically move, or manipulate, other characters? In what way does she ‘love’ and is she ‘loved’ by each of them? To what extent does she touch, and is she touched by each of them?
Relationships and ‘emotional subtext’, Medea in relation to each of the other characters
Perhaps it’s useful to see Medea’s character as being revealed through a series of relationships. Her relationship with each member of the Chorus as an individual is important. And her relationship with them as a group seems vital - its path in some ways perhaps echoing that of our audiences?
Three possibilities, for example, in the relationships between Medea and the Chorus, as a group, might be:
Chorus - ‘I sympathise with you, I am horrified by you, I grieve with you’ Medea - ‘I need you, I tell you, I show you’
Different possible ‘emotional subtexts’ have been suggested in the Director’s notes concerning each of other characters in the play. These examples are listed below to save cross-referencing:
Nurse - ‘I fear you, I love you, I want to understand you’ Medea - ‘ I trust you, I command you, I ignore you’
Tutor - ‘I fear for you, I pity you, I want to encourage you’ Medea - ‘ I respect you, I command you, I need you’
Boys - ‘I love you, I fear you, I trust you’ Medea - ‘ I love you/I hate you, I protect you/I destroy you, I feel part of you/I feel apart from you’
Creon - ‘I fear your powers deeply, I suspect you, I am beguiled by you’ Medea - ‘ I flatter you, I know you, I despise you’
Jason - ‘I love you, I hate you, I no longer desire you’ Medea - ‘ I love you, I hate you, I still desire you’
Aegeus - ‘I love you as a friend, I respect you, I need you’ Medea - ‘ I need you, I am wary of you, I seduce you’
Messenger - ‘I fear for you, I am outraged by you, I wash my hands of you’ Medea - ‘ I need you, I learn from you, I no longer need you’
Her relationship with the Boys, especially, feels crucial to our understanding and interpretation of the play as a whole. Her hopes for their futures contrast strongly with those of Jason (1002-4). Her relationship with Jason also is totally crucial to our interpretation of the play as a whole. In line 842 she says they ‘once showed such kindness to one another’. Does she still love and/or desire him? In the Exodos, Jason says he does not care about Medea (1280). Is this true? What if he does still care, in his own way? What if they both simply hate? What if they both deeply care? What if both are true?
These possibilities (or any other selected ones) may be used as points of inner focus for the characters in relation to each other (within naturalism); and/or may be used as a springboard for physicalisation in terms of body posture, distance from each other and etc. As noted elsewhere, the idea of ‘emotional subtext’ is related to some of the ideas outlined above but is distinct from Stanislavsky’s idea of subtext - which encompasses both thoughts, as much as feelings, and is normally understood to run counter to the text. ‘Emotional subtext’ may run counter to, or in parallel with, the text.
5.Telling her individual story
What is the story of Medea in the play - before it begins - during the play - and after it ends? What possible endings are there within the final image of the play? Our choices for this seem very closely linked with our understanding of the play as a whole. Hopefully things will become clear in rehearsals, as to whether, for example, Medea leaves at the end of the play.
In the Exodos, the Chorus find the ending of the story ‘unlikely’. What do they mean by this? Medea’s first wish in the play is ‘I want to die’ (88). Do they expect her to commit suicide (1261-71)? Do we want the audience to find the ending ‘unlikely’ as well?
4. Entrances and Exits, Medea
Prologue
Medea is inside the ‘house’. We see her and hear her cry out. (For the significance of the decision to make visible the normally concealed parts of the play, see Rite.) We want to experiment with the possibility of recording some of Medea’s words spoken very softly, (as if they were inside her own head, perhaps) and juxtaposing them with live words, cries and sobbing. A second element we want to experiment with during the Lyric Sections of the Prologue and the Parodos, is hearing wedding music played live and/or recorded (again as if Medea might be hearing the sounds inside her own head). We’ll just have to wait and see what different combinations sound like together. A key idea in relation to this is that the play takes place on the very day of Jason’s wedding to the princess. (See Sound Design and Music.)
Parodos
Medea is inside the ‘house’. We see her and hear her cry out. The Nurse perhaps goes inside to fetch her just after line 194?
Episode 1
Medea enters at the beginning of Episode 1, just before line 203.
Ode 1
Medea is present.
Episode 2
Medea is present.
Ode 2
Medea is present.
Episode 3
Medea is present. She exits into the ‘house’ perhaps just after line 802? We see her poison the gifts inside the ‘house’.
Ode 3
Medea re-enters perhaps just before line 817 and is then present.
Episode 4
Medea is present.
Ode 4
Medea is present.
Episode 5
Medea is present.
Interlude
Medea is present.
Episode 6
Medea is present.
Ode 5
Medea exits into the ‘house’ just after line 1225 and we see her kill the Boys.
Exodos
Medea re-enters (1295) perhaps through the auditorium? She is then present. Perhaps she exits through the auditorium just after line 1387?
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