Medea, Written in Rage

Neil Bartlett can always be relied on to stir up a sense of excitement and this amazing piece of theatre does just that. This is beautifully brutal and brutally beautiful too. His translation is mercilessly dark, bleak and impassioned, his use of language sweeping between the lyrical and classical to the brittle edge of piercing slang. His translation of Jean-Réne Lemoine’s text is brought shockingly to life in a way that is typically Bartlett, truly accomplished.

All that of course would be great in itself but Bartlett constructs his works with an incredible pool of talent and here the whole is stunningly realised by Mr Pearl’s beautiful costume, Chahine Yavroyan’s measured lighting and Phil Von’s excellent music and soundscape delivered live from the stage. The team come together in a spectacle of grand theatre that is both simplistic and then magnificent.

This is genuinely marvellous but all completely dependent on a performer of talent, colossal talent. François Testory is that colossus, performing in his second language, he is fluent, he is fluid, he commands the stage and the audience alike and for over 80 minutes, this a major slab of text, he is simply magical, embodying the lust, the violence and the grief of Medea in a coup de théâtre that is never short of superb – and all delivered on huge stilt like platform sandals!

Power, raw sexuality, anger and fragility ooze from Testory’s every breath, word and movement to create a mesmerisingly memorable theatre event.

I suspect that the whole might not have been to everyone’s taste, too rich perhaps, but more fool them for not engaging with modern theatre of the very highest order.

Theatre Royal Brighton

26 May

Andrew Kay

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