By Matt McDermott

Medea, as interpreted by BackStage Theatre

BackStage Theatre company presented Euripides' classic tragedy, Medea, from June 24th through July 23rd, 2006 at the Chopin Studio Theater in Wicker Park. The production highlighted the cultural estrangement present in Euripides' haunting analysis of love, hate, treachery and retribution through its mixture of spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL). On July 2nd, 2006 BackStage performed a fully sign interpreted performance.

Director and ensemble member Michael Pacas sees the relevance of the play today in the way it "confronts our anxieties over gender politics and our fears of encountering or being the outsider." He commented on the use of ASL, saying that by "presenting Medea and Jason as a hearing/deaf couple, [we] hope to show how personal interactions can crumble leading to devastating results."

Euripides was an innovator in the form of the Greek trajedy. His use of strong female lead characters, his satirical stabs at social convention and, perhaps most of all, his focus on the internal lives and motivations of his characters gives his work a natural appeal to contemporary audiences. The tragic results of the clash between Jason's actions and Medea's reaction are based in part on the breakdown of the communication that enables humanity to resolve disputes before the possibility of mediation is lost to the overflowing passions and demands of the emotional self. In this production, ASL not only emphasizes the destruction of the connection between Jason and Medea, it illustrates the flawed translations underlying all human interaction as well as the futility of conveying the personal side of tragedy.

Euripides drew on the myth of Jason and Medea but in the play gives it a spin that has inspired some to call it an ancient precursor to feminist heroines. Unlike in the myth, in the play Medea is not inexplicably mad. She reasons her way to what is considered an insane act, that of a mother murdering her own children, through monologues that criticize the social standing of women and her own fate now that Jason had chosen to abandon her to marry another woman. Tragic events become explained as calculated revenge; Jason cannot be admired for his abandonment of his wife and children, Medea's long attempts at justification are not enough to condone the act. Again, the turbulence of identity, the emotions and relationships are brought to the fore in the words of Medea and the signing of Jason. Medea is strong yet inexcusable, Jason weak in his self-indulgence, the ending a tragedy: the result of lost connections.

Medea was the last play in BackStage's season. Based on a translation by Ian Johnston and with original music by Natasha Bogojevich, the production featured a 12-person cast. The 2006 season also included Jeff Nominated The Skin of Our Teeth and Denise Druczweski's Inferno.