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Misplaced myths
YOUNG THEATRE director Graham McLaren grabbed your attention the moment he sprang to the stage to thank the Chennai viewers for their responsive reception of Theatre Babel's ``Medea''. No surprise that the man in the tartan kilt should have the musical accents of Scotland.
What made you sit up was that the actors who played the sophisticated Corinthians in the play had it too as they scorned the alien refugee among them. The émigré herself speaks the Queen's English. The play bears testimony to the reversal of perspectives across the world.
The Medea myth reflects the paradox of primeval power in the weaker sex. In an act of unspeakable savagery, the witch kills her own children to be revenged on betrayer husband Jason.
Recent interpretations believe that the Medea myth has special cross-cultural resonance in our global village, where migrations and immigrations are the norm, and alienation the rule. Besides, unlike Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides' more open-ended, ambiguous style allows greater leeway for adaptations, as in this one by Scottish playwright Liz Lochhead.
``I don't see Medea as all evil,'' says McLaren. In the ancient world, women had no rights of court procedures and custody. Medea has her reasons for murdering her children — should she let them be brought up by strangers and influenced by agencies she considers malevolent? "I distinctly remember how terrified I was when my mother said, that in the event of a nuclear holocaust, she would kill me and my brother along with herself.'' He believes that his version of Medea has acquired more connotations in the post-September 11 world, where anyone who looks, dresses, talks or behaves differently becomes the target of suspicion and misreading.
And yet for McLaren, terror is not the prime mover in Medea. ``What I felt was compassion. But I suspect that Medea the myth and Medea in this play are two different things.'' When the play was premiered in 431 B.C., Euripides was criticised severely because ``Medea'' was not tragic enough in structure and character, was too ironic and its language too colloquial.
The translations did not reflect this colloquial bite, nor did productions forsake the grandiose mould of masked actors in flowing robes declaiming in morose circles. Lochhead and McLaren did not want a museum piece. They sought to revive the spirit of the original — ``though it is politically incorrect in post-modern times to try to portray the author's intention.''
``What's the use of replicating the Globe Theatre or having people running around in pantaloons to distribute rotten tomatoes to the spectators'' he asks. ``We are not Elizabethans or ancient Greeks.'' For the same reason he does not believe in putting characters from past ages into jeans and T-shirts. That kind of realism ``kills the taste buds''.
``Medea'' retains mythic qualities in the simple, semiotic symbolism of colours, costume design and lighting. But the Scottish adaptation shifts the focus for contemporary relevance, for the feel of the real and now — in its use of the chorus, and in deleting obviously theatrical devices like the deus ex machina. But — was the modernisation of ``Medea'' at the cost of the transcendent and regenerative experience of tragedy? The question bothered you at the end of the highly professional performance.
``Ours is a respectful, but not a reverential version. Scholars who saw the play at the ancient amphitheatre in Cyprus, want to translate this text into Greek!'' McLaren laughs.
Theatre Babel works with old classics, mainly texts known to scholars but not to actors and directors. ``In the last 10-15 years, the visual has dominated the word. People have ignored language in favour of some simple visual metaphor. Why can't we have both? To be appealing, a piece of work must excite me spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and sexually. The audience will see the work that excites me. It may excite them too, who can tell.''
Later he adds, ``I believe a play works if it addresses issues of what it is to be human and alive, if it's honest, puts its heart on its sleeve, doesn't get too cerebral or cynical.''
``No other country has been as stimulating as India!'' he exclaims. With all his interest in world classics, McLaren's knowledge of ``Indian theatre'' remains confined to Peter Brooks' "Mahabharata". The excitement is unmatched by exposure to the dramatic literature and performance genres of the subcontinent.
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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