Medea

“★★★½ (out of 4)
A remarkable production. As extraordinary in vision and delivery as it is provocative and captivating.

Director Kevin V. Smith takes us on a theatrically Dali-esque journey through the text of this classic tale by realizing a stream-of-consciousness dreamscape. The surreal backdrop of fluctuating artistic imagery and dramatic styles jolts the story out of its conventionally classic milieu and blasts the audience into a thought provoking unreality.

You will be challenged and rewarded by this incredible offering. You will be haunted by the heart wrenching intensity and creative chaos of this singular Medea.”

“Layers of action and meaning constantly overlap and collide in this hauntingly staged production. The beautiful clashes with the absurd, intimacy and grandeur rip each other to shreds.

Medea can be seen as a proto-feminist text, and in this director Kevin V. Smith makes some bold but brilliant choices. Notably, the Chorus is played entirely by young women getting ready for prom. Their lines become gossip, and it connects the women of the past with those in the present. It’s uncomfortable in a good way; a reminder of the primordial pain of beauty and heady romances that so often fail.”

“A powerful experience.”

“Director Kevin V. Smith’s imagistic staging is packed with intriguing ideas.

Smith’s massive, moodily lit stage houses two incompatible worlds: an expressionistic realm where the major players hold forth with stentorian gravity, and a cruddy greenroom where six distracted young women—an unlikely chorus—get dressed for prom, muttering their lines as though reading incomprehensible tweets from strangers.”

“[The] long soliloquies are filled with such agony that they shake the stage.”

“★★★½ (out of 4)
A surreal spin on a forgotten adaption makes this a treasure. Kevin V. Smith has taken [Medea] and injected another layer, blending his view into a multi-layered work that continues to unflinchingly hold its ancient mirror to our collective conscience.

Dreamlike detailing abounds. A modern Corinthian chorus of young women greet us with short stories from their past. A curtain rises behind them and the sheer depth of the space is made clear as they take up positions next to Medea’s front porch and begin prepping for a modern day prom night.

An absorbing spectacle built more on ascetic discipline than gaudy excess. Combinations of the absurd with the standard and the intimate with the epic creates a captivating tableaux. Like great poetry, these details explode our awareness of what to expect: Through the falling debris we become able to glean new insights.”