Helen McCrory

Medea, National Theatre: “Tigress, not a woman”

On July 23, 2014May 7, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory fascinates as a damaged and alien Medea in a ragged and brilliant production

by Philip Womack | July 23, 2014 | Port Magazine

A scene from Medea. Credit Ricard Hubert Smith — A scene from Medea at the National Theatre. Credit Ricard Hubert Smith

Euripides’ Medea is a play that continues to fascinate and horrify in equal measure. Medea’s actions – to kill her own children, her love rival, and King Creon of Corinth, in revenge for being passed over by Jason in favour of the King’s daughter – seem to us so alien and remote that we can only watch, aghast.

The National Theatre’s production sees Medea as a refugee, and casts Corinth as a humid, sweltering place of decaying splendour. The stage indicated Medea’s apartness: her domain was the ground floor, with paint peeling and no furniture; above, behind glass, were the royal family, preparing the wedding of Jason and the princess.

Continue reading Medea, National Theatre: “Tigress, not a woman”

Interviews Medea Video

VIDEO: Introduction to Medea

On July 22, 2014April 25, 2021 By Gingersnap4Helen No Comments

The National Theatre’s Production of Medea

by Edith Hall | YouTube | July 22, 2014

Medea Print Media Reviews

Medea review – Carrie Cracknell’s version is a tragic force to be reckoned wit

On July 22, 2014April 13, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory excels in this modern-dress take on Euripides that is alive with complexity and psychological astuteness

After her success with Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Carrie Cracknell now turns her directorial attention to an even more wronged heroine: Euripides‘ Medea, who avenges herself on Jason by murdering their two children. The virtue of this production and Ben Power’s new version is that they avoid quasi-operatic grandeur to present us with a recognisable human being who is alive with contradictions.

You sense this from the start in Helen McCrory‘s stunning modern-dress Medea. We first hear her offstage howls at Jason’s abandonment of her so that he can marry a Corinthian princess. Our first sighting of McCrory, however, is of a woman in singlet and dungarees emerging from her closet, cleaning her teeth. The complex portrait that emerges is of a Medea who is both rational and irrational, in the grip of a vengeful idée fixe and yet open to maternal feeling.

“My heart is wrenched in two,” McCrory announces at one point; and throughout, her Medea switches, with brilliant volatility, from the manipulative to the murderous to the unpredictably humane.

Continue reading Medea review – Carrie Cracknell’s version is a tragic force to be reckoned wit

Medea Reviews

Medea – National Theatre Review: Unforgettable and Horribly Gripping

On July 22, 2014April 28, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

A scrupulously judicious modern-dress production

by Paul Taylor | July 22, 2014 | The Independent

Helen McCrory as Medea

(Richard Hubert Smith)

This is, incredibly, the first ever staging of Medea in the National Theatre’s 50 year history. It’s an omission all the more remarkable, given the complex feminist issues raised by Euripides’ unsparing portrayal of a dumped woman driven to exacting revenge on her treacherous partner by the ultimate (and tragically self-defeating) recourse of murdering their children.

Carrie Cracknell plugs the gap now with this horribly gripping, scrupulously judicious modern-dress production (part of the Olivier’s £15 Travelex season) in which Helen McCrory gives a performance of scorching emotional power and searching psychological acuity.

Our first view is of her two little sons lying on sleeping bags and watching TV in the dilapidated guest house – which gives onto a dark, creepy garden – in which they and their mother are camping out before banishment.

Medea Reviews

Medea Review: ”Helen McCrory is on exceptional form’

On July 22, 2014April 16, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory triumphs as a murderous Medea with a modern touch

By Henry Hitchings | July 22, 2014 | Evening Standard

Helen McCrory is on exceptional form as Medea, the most disturbing of Greek tragic heroines. The character tends to be portrayed as a she-devil, a murderous manipulator who’s wild with love and rage.

McCrory powerfully conveys Medea’s bitter destructiveness, while also suggesting the vulnerability of a woman shunned by a society where she’s seen as a cunning foreigner.

Euripides’ play, almost 2,500 years old, is clear-cut and intense — a piercing, painful vision of passion and betrayal. It is giving nothing away to say that Medea kills her own children after being spurned by their father Jason, who has married another woman. Even if you don’t know the plot, its trajectory is obvious from early on, and Carrie Cracknell’s production is pacy and direct.

Continue reading Medea Review: ”Helen McCrory is on exceptional form’