Saw Medea yesterday (first time, and possibly first Greek theatre adaptation). Amazing performance from Helen McCrory as the spurned wife, consumed by rage against her unfaithful husband. She never succumbs to the temptation of melodrama but conveys the shifting feelings of the principal with conviction.
The production is relatively lavish with a large cast and ornate dressing that combines pre-WW2 domestic style with Greek motifs. The use of the chorus is well-thought out with excellent choreography and a mischievous mixture of encouragement, support and horror.
The final scene where the chorus pleads for the gods to save Medea's children captures perfectly the ambiguity of the observers and of the attitude of the Olympian pantheon.
Medea shifting emotions seem to echo mental illness at times but stay within the bounds of ancient Greek cultural values. She is bad rather than mad and before the play starts guilty of defying all the conventions of her world, an individual making herself against the world.
The music is atmospheric and written, I found afterwards, by Goldfrapp.
The mixed ability of the supporting cast is the only blemish in pleasurable but disturbing piece of theatre.