Award-winning Medea comes to Weymouth College following successful international tours

An award-winning re-working of Euripides’ classic tale of betrayal and revenge, Medea, is coming to Weymouth in February.

The Multi-Story Theatre Company will stage the production at The Bay Theatre, Weymouth College, on February 12th at 7.30pm.

The story of Jason and Medea reflects emotional and dramatic truths as old and as basic to the human condition as ambition itself, captured in all its complex psychological wonder by Euripides and presented in a masterly adaptation by Gill Nathanson and Bill Buffery.

This production previously created tremendous excitement on a tour of arts centres and colleges in England, and took Canada by storm, chosen as best production at each of the three festivals it played.

After performances at the 1999 RSC Visitors Season, Medea played the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival, winning awards for Best Production and Best Female Performer.

Robert Enright, art critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, commented: “Medea is magnificent, there’s no other word for it. In this play of a crime against nature and its provocations, Bill Buffery and Gill Nathanson pull out all the stops.

“Medea isn’t just written with the precision of a scalpel and acted with exquisite detail and emotion, it is also one of the most beautifully designed plays I’ve seen in a decade of fringe reviewing.

“From the opening tableau, with Medea perched on a promontory like a dark thought contemplating its own existence, and with Jason rolled up in a cocoon of white fabric, through the use of shadows projected on a white background, to the wash of red lighting that announces Medea’s unspeakable crime, this play finds the look that blends perfectly with the language and action.

“Did I say unspeakable crime? The triumph of this production is precisely that it articulates our deepest fears and gives voice to that part of the human soul that we want buried forever. Do anything you can to see this play.”

Medea proved to be of particular interest to schools and colleges both in the UK and further afield, including Chile, Peru, Norway, Portugal and the Ukraine – and now it comes to Weymouth College’s own theatre.

An accompanying workshop for students will explore the themes and the structure of Euripides’ original, relating these to present day concerns and styles of theatre.

The Multi-Story Theatre Company was created in 2000 by Bill Buffery and Gill Nathanson, inspired by their visits to Canadian Fringes and building on years of touring experience in the UK. As the name implies, they are centrally concerned with the enduring power of story, and with communicating the richness of the old stories to new audiences, both young and old.

Gill Nathanson trained as a drama teacher and worked with some of the UK’s top education and community theatre companies before joining Orchard Theatre Company in 1989. As well as playing leading roles with the company, she ran three youth theatres and an extensive workshop programme.

Bill Buffery both performed and directed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, was deputy director of the National Youth Theatre and was artistic director of Orchard Theatre Company for 11 years.

Medea is suitable for ages 14-plus. Tickets for the production at The Bay Theatre are available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/thebaytheatre