CityLife

Medea at Contact - a study in obsessive love

Medea - passionate and relevant

THE tragic tale of Medea, written by Euripedes, has enthralled audiences for over 2,000 years.
 

Now, director Rachel Brogan has given Liz Lochhead’s poetic translation of Medea a modern-day Mancunian make over for a new production at Contact.
 

The action is transported from the ancient streets of Corinth to a south Manchester council estate where Medea, an ordinary woman struggling to bring up her children, has just discovered that her lover, Jason, has left her for another woman.
 

Tortured by her passion and crushed by the betrayal, Medea rages against her fate before plotting revenge. 
 

Obsessive love

]What attracted Brogan to the piece, she says, is that it ‘explores the depths a woman is willing to go to when she is embroiled in, and consumed by, obsessive love’.
 

She said: “It’s a challenge to develop a protagonist you might not necessarily feel sympathy or even empathy for.
 

“It’s hard to try and understand her reasoning for killing her children as an act of revenge. Despite the story being written over 2,000 years ago and Medea being royalty, there is something I can relate to.
 

“I think it is amazing writing that can transcend time, class and gender. 
 

Passionate and intense

“It was a challenge to take the melodrama of Greek tragedy and boil it down to the domestic level.

''But, whether you are born in a royal household or a council house, when you are in love, passionate and intense, the vunerability and helplessness render you equal.
 

''I am also on a mission, I have a passion for engaging a wide-range of people in the theatre. I want to make work that is popular, work that’s viewed as popular culture.

''The subject matter is universal. Who hasn’t experienced the pain of being in love?
 

Adulterous affairs

“Although naturalistic in style, the play will be designed and lit with some of the key techniques used in the genre of film noir.

That fits perfectly with some of the classic themes,” she believes, citing as example’s ‘the urban setting, Manchester’s rain, jealousy, adulterous affairs, conspiracy, betrayals and murder’. 
 

 “Medea,” she concludes, “is a classic femme-fatale with her constantly shifting state of mind.

''She is a morally ambiguous protagonist, driven by sexual motivation. Her actions throw the audience into a moral quandary. How far can we judge her when everything seems to be dictated by Fate?''

Thick, heavy atmosphere

Visually Medea will be lit with a mixture of flattering soft lighting and shadows to create a thick, heavy atmosphere of cynicism and sophistication. 
 

“Of course, with this being film noir, we will be using light through Venetian blinds!”
 

Rachel is also a producer and co-artistic director of the M.E.N. Theatre Award-winning Working Girls theatre company. In fact, her career started at Contact 16 years ago.
 

“I worked with their youth theatre group in the old building,” she recalls, before going on to Arden College and Salford University.
 

While at university she was offered a part in a play, directed by Dominic Cooke at The Royal Court and has been a professional actor for the past 10 years.

Best Studio Production

She said: “In 2005 I decided to co-form my own theatre company, Working Girls.
 

“It was Contact that believed in our vision and gave us the space to develop Iron, which won an M.E.N. award for Best Studio Production that same year.” 
 

 When she decided she wanted to explore directing she attended Live & Direct, a scheme run by Contact, Nitro and Tara Arts for Black and Asian artists who are interested in directing, after which she was awarded a nine month bursary to work as a trainee director at Contact.