Skip to main content

MEDEA by Euripides

ROADS AND ORANGES FILM PRODUCTIONS, Cyprus
  • Wednesday, July 21
    “Skali” Amphitheatre
  • Thursday, July 22
    “Skali” Amphitheatre
  • Saturday, July 24
    Curium Ancient Theatre
  • Performances start at:
    21:00
    Please arrive at the theatre before 20:15

Euripides’s masterpiece, Medea, which deals with the last act of the passionate relationship between Jason and Medea, is this year’s Cypriot production in the Festival, directed by Aliki Danezi Knutsen. Seven actresses, in a unique stage setting guided by speech and sound, retrieve and reconstruct the dark and fierce forms of Euripides’ tragedy.

The barbarian, the foreigner, the witch, the woman; a multidimensional character with uncontrollable emotions, complex and fascinating, Medea struggles with love, motherhood, betrayal, irrationality and vengeful fury.

Medea is a tragedy of passion and conflict between logic and existential irrationality, where Euripides elaborately dissects the human soul and decodes his heroes’ reactions when they reach their limits.

  • WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES

  • Translation:

    Minos Volanakis

  • Direction:

    Aliki Danezi Knutsen

  • Set design :

    Natasa Chrysafini

  • Costume design:

    Antreas Antoniou

  • Lighting design:

    Aliki Danezi Knutsen

  • Music:

    Stefanos Skoulikaris, Nikos Paterakis

  • Movement:

    Panaγiotis Tofi

  • Director’s assistant:

    Stratos Dalamagkos

  • Production management:

    Stephanie Polykarpou

Cast:

  • Medea:

    Stela Fyrogeni

  • Jason:

    Elena Kallinikou

  • Nurse:

    Annie Khoury

  • Tutor:

    Ivie Nicolaidou

  • Creon:

    Antria Zeniou

  • Aegeus:

    Polyxenie Savva

  • Messenger:

    Antonia Charalambous

Director’s note

A song am I! And the boys a dreadful chorus!
Apollo, Sun of Sounds, masculine Sun,
why didn’t you give me the lyre!
A shrill psalm about men’s achievements
would resonate from female mouths.
For men, women, whatever Time reveals,
ALL COMES TO LIGHT! And may the worthy be victorious!
Now honor to the women’s race.”

(Medea, translated by Minos Volanakis)

 

There are many readings of Medea. The same goes for my readings of this amazing play that I’ve always desired to direct. In the particular place and time we live, where so much has shifted inside and around us and is still changing, my present reading has a special, peculiar character. When Medea finds out that Jason is leaving her, extreme, wild and primitive feelings overpower her and she instinctively utters the idea for her heinous act. Her journey through the play can be seen as a path to reconciliation with her wild nature and, despite the tragic magnitude of the event, a path to acceptance.

Her soul travels through the paths of the mind.
Her body labors through the anger of her soul.
Medea gets to know the pain of rejection and asks for salvation – Jason has been unjust to her – her erotic passion turns into rage.
She wants to cut every bond, to get revenge, to be saved. And she utters the unutterable:
“I will kill my children.”
Black tears.
And male hormones.
The men that decide for Medea’s future are exiled.
Her journey is a struggle to rediscover sanity.
It’s a fight to abandon society.
The female breath rises through masculine sweat.
From violent emotional expression to the rhythmic beat of the plan.
Woman.
Today.

Aliki Danezi Knutsen

ROADS AND ORANGES FILM PRODUCTIONS

Roads and Oranges Film Productions was founded in 1995. The production company has, with its films and documentaries, participated in international festivals and has received awards and distinctions. It has also been funded by international as well as Greek and Cypriot cinema organisations.

In theatre, the company has co-produced performances that have been staged in important theatres in Greece and Cyprus and in international festivals like the Athens Epidaurus Festival, the International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama and Kypria International Festival, being commercially and artistically acclaimed.

Among the theatrical activity of the company, there are memorable productions such as Αgamemnon by Aeschylus, directed by Cezaris Grauzinis (Athens Epidaurus Festival, 2018 International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama et al.), and also Caligula by Albert Camus, directed by Aliki Danezi Knutsen (Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Kypria International Festival 2017).

www.roadsandorangesfilms.com