Medea MITEM

Jason has abandoned Medea; she and her children are threatened with banishment. By marrying Kreon’s daughter, Jason will receive a definitive right of residence and a socially and economically secure position. Deeply hurt by this betrayal and distraught by Jason’s shameless defiance of their bond of marriage and vows of fidelity, Medea plots a cruel revenge. Boundless love turns into boundless hatred: Medea decides to kill their children. What can human beings relinquish, what can be taken away from them, before they lash out with no mercy?

There is hardly another name as fascinating and frightening at the same time as Medea’s, and hardly another antique text that has been interpreted and adopted so widely as her myth. The premiere of the version by Euripides, the playwright, took place in 431 BCE. Medea – an immensely humiliated victim, a passionately loving person and a cruel avenger – is one of the most contradictory figures in the world’s drama literature.

In 2013, Michael Thalheimer’s staging of Medea was invited to the Theatertreffen in Berlin, the festival that showcases ten of the best performances from German-language theatres. Constanze Becker in the role of Medea was honoured with the Faust Award, the German theatrical recognition for the best actress. So far, MITEM hosted two shows by Michael Thalheimer from the Berliner Ensemble: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (2018) and A Streetcar Named Desire (2019).

(Photographer: Birgit Hupfeld)