The central acting area is a circular platform without any theatrical paraphernalia. Ben Daniels walks in slow motion around its perimeter throughout, putting on a different jacket to play four characters – Jason, Creon, a tutor and Aegeus.
After a sluggish start, Marion Bailey warms up as the Nurse, and her horrific description of Medea’s revenge ices the blood. The chorus of three women in the stalls doesn’t detract from the vortex of power that is Okonedo.
She dominates the stage as the sorceress and ‘barbarian’ wife of Jason who is exchanged for a younger and more politically advantageous model – Creon’s daughter.
Proud, defiant, fuelled by injustice, she is both frightening and empathetic. Not since Diana Rigg’s 1992 performance did I so easily understand Medea’s psychopathy.
By deadpanning her rage, Okonedo brings humour to her lines before the horror kicks in and she sacrifices her beloved sons on the altar of revenge.
Female powerlessness in a patriarchal society and the sense that the best way to combat evil is to be more evil is conveyed with glacial clarity.
Daniels makes a good fist of Jason’s ultimately annihilated arrogance while his Aegeus is a triumphantly humane interpretation. This is hardcore theatre that takes no prisoners.
- Medea, Soho Place Theatre until April 22, Tickets: 0330 333 5962
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