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Monday, May 27, 2019

Blueprint Medea review – Euripides explodes in modern London

Finborough theatre, London Julia Pascal’s dynamic production sees Medea reborn as a former fighter against Isis who finds Jason in the British capital Euripides’ Medea is not just a bloodthirsty barbarian princess fuelled by preternatural powers and “black hatred” to take revenge on a husband who spurns her. She is also an Asian woman and foreigner who makes huge sacrifices for Jason only to find herself alone in the hostile west. In Julia Pascal’s modern reconception of the ancient Greek tragedy, she is reborn as a former fighter for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Writer and director Pascal took inspiration from the late Asia Ramazan Antar, a symbol of the feminist struggle in the fight against Islamic State (Isis) who was, somewhat reductively, dubbed the “Kurdish Angelina Jolie” in the western press for her physical likeness. Continue reading...


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