AACT stages new
production of'Medea'

By Stacy ArnoMl
For the Daily
Can the world tolerate another bit-
ter woman? Before Alanis, Thelma
and Louise, and "The First Wives
Club," before alimony and feminism,
there was Medea. She was the first of
her kind because her creator,
Euripides, was an ancient Greek. The
1997 Ann Arbor Civic Theater perfor-
mance captures Medea's acrimonious
tongue and pas-
sionate love.
Medea, played . P E
by Wendy Hiller, j
is laden with con-
tradiction. She is June 1
a proud and pro- CivicPa
tective mother, CickPt
but circumstances
cast her as an enraged murderess. A
princess and a sorceress, she has suf-
fered a grievous injury by her own
husband, Jason. Wendy Hiller shows
her flexible range while she performs
the complex psychology of this char-
acter. She shocks and delights the
audience with an invocation to
Hecate and a grin like Morticia
Addams.'
Jason is rep- A
resented by For the b!
Danny Ferman
as a ponytailed heart, oM
prima donna.
He radiates revene I
arrogance, even
after wedding a
younger wife
who is, not coincidentally, King
Creon's daughter. Recall: Medea has
previously killed her own brother,
fled her native land, followed Jason
to Greece and mothered his two sons.
Is Jason the provocation for his first
wife's rage or the victim of her witch-
craft?
The chorus, composed of Greek
women, supplies the vacillating
answer to this question. Their judg-
ments add chant, rhythm and tension
to the play. Greek women sympathize
with Medea because she is a female
(and thus wretched) but fear her
because she is a foreigner. The chorus
of women also makes this Greek
drama timeless; one can almost envi-
sion Oprah or Ricki Lake thrusting at
microphone in front of Medea. while

R
12-
ts

an audience of chanting women waits
for Jason to take the stage.
King Creon, the father of Jason's
new bride Creusa, tries to protect his
daughter from Medea by banishing
her to exile. More of a whiner than a
ruler, Creon could use a dose of
Medea's venom. Melissa Ryan, play-
ing the part of the messenger, ener-
gizes the stage. She frets and flag
her arms in agony, bemoaning
M e d e a' s
vengeance, maxi-
EVI mEN mizing her short
Medea time on stage.
Ryan delivers the
14 and 19-21, 8 p.m. torturous fate of
souse, 2275 Platt Rd. Creusa, as the
s $10 $9 tor snudenns
princess' pain is
silhouetted in the
background.
The scenery of "Medea" is monV
chromatic - a stark motif for a spec-
trum of emotion. The gray of Medea's
stone home contrasts with the sugges-
tion of jungle vines festooning the
sky. The juxtaposition of the town and
the jungle mirrors the many contra-
dictions of "civilized" people. Tod
Barker, the pro-
duction's direc-
tter at tr, artfully st)
gests that
,/ "Medea" takes
place in Greece,
S sWeet. but also lives
entangled with-
in our human
hearts.
Give your imagination a whirl and
take the worthwhile 5- to 10-minute
drive from campus to the Civic
Playhouse (2275 Platt Rd.). The
Playhouse, constructed in an
roller-skating rink, has no concealing
curtain and no faraway seats. Here,
one can escape to a foreign landscape
of unthinkable deeds and unbearable
passion.
Can the world sustain another bit-
ter woman? So long as men follow
the laws of the jungle - survival at
any cost -- women will find power in
their strong emotions. Medea, as her
nurse says, is not a weak womO
Rather, her intense love and intense
hate drive her to extreme actions. For
the bitter at hearts onlr ievee is
sweet.

I%
Il
is