Medea (NHB Classic Plays) E-Book

Euripides

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 54

Beschreibung

Euripides' classic about the woman who murders her own children in revenge for her husband's infidelity, here given a distinctive Scots flavour by the poet and playwright Liz Lochhead. Winner of the Saltire Society's award for SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2001 'This outstanding work should firmly establish the Glasgow playwright as Scotland's greatest living dramatist... the finest piece I have seen on the Scottish stage this year' - Scotland on Sunday 'Liz Lochhead's stunning new version of Medea is the kind of interpretation - brave, visionary, risky - that blows a well-known text apart and reassembles it in a completely new light... ancient but new, cosmic yet agonisingly familiar' - Scotsman 'Some of the most exciting recent work on Greek drama in the English language' - Sunday Times

Leseprobe

Liz Lochhead

MEDEA

after

Euripides

LONDON

NICK HERN BOOKS

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Medea

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Medea was first performed at The Old Fruit market, Glasgow on March 17th 2000, with the following cast:

MEDEA

Maureen Beattie

JASON

Stephen Hogan

KREON

Finlay Welsh

GLAUKE

Dawn Steele

NURSE

Carol Ann Crawford

MANSERVANT

John Kazek

GUARD

Gareth Williams

CHORUS

Amanda Crossley

Alexa Kesselaar

Barrie Hunter

Raymond Short

Rebecca Rodgers

Vari Sylvester

Ali de Souza

The production was then revived at the Assembly Rooms for the Edinburgh Festival fringe in August 2000, with the following changes:

GUARD

Paul Needham

CHORUS

Dierdre Davis

Katy Hale

Collette Murray

The production was remounted for a National Tour in Autumn 2000, with the following changes:

JASON

Bruce White

MANSERVANT

Michael Nardone

NURSE

Jo Cameron Brown

The production then returned to the Assembly Rooms for the Edinburgh Festival fringe in 2001, with the following changes:

JASON

Duncan Duff

MANSERVANT

John Kazek

NURSE

Carol Ann Crawford

CHORUS

Pauline Knowles

A woman is talking to herself and us. This is the NURSE.

The people of this country all have Scots accents, their language varies from Scots to Scots-English – from time to time and from character to character – and particular emotional state of character.

NURSE

I wish to all the Gods it had never sailed the Argo

had never set its proud prow atween the humped blue rocks

of distant islands forced itsel through straits

breisted waves to land on unlucky Kolchis why?

why did the sun ever heat up the soil

in which there split that seed

that sproutit from sapling to a tall tree of girth enough

to be felled to build its keel? why was it ever oared?

why crewed wi heroes fit to filch the Golden Fleece?

adventurers!

my lady Medea would never then have sailed wi Jason

daft for him doted!

would no have for his sake

swicked Pelias’ dochters into killing their faither

for Jason’s sake she fled here to Corinth

wi Jason and their bairns ingratiatin hersel

sookin in a fawning exile a foreigner

for his sake

now it all sours on her see how he’s turned

brave Jason’s bedded a new bride Glauke

dochter of Kreon the King a princess of this land

and Medea left to rot

among the spylte and wastit love she’s stuck wi

she’s chucked out like

an old coat that nae langer fits him

nae wonder Medea winna be comforted shivers

stinks of fear canna eat

canna sleep greets till she can greet nae mair

stares at the cauld grunn greets again greets sair

try soothing her she’s a stone

in kindness leave her be she rolls in her rags

claws at hersel keening

too late she screams remorse for a faither loast

a land abandoned the betrayals

she made for Jason who faur waur betrays her noo

too late too late she learns she should

have clung to what she had

the children – she looks on them with empty eyes

as if they’re nothing to her

I’m feart for her fear her

I shut my eyes and see Medea

creepan through the labyrinthine palace

follying her hatred like a thread

I dream of a dagger thrust in yon double bed

skewering the lovers thegither

I see the skailt blood of Kreon the king

she’s capable of onything

A handsome young, strong MANSERVANT enters with the CHILDREN.

MANSERVANT

well auld yin my lady’s lady

what are you daen dithering here

girning on aboot the griefs of your betters?

they wouldnae greet for you

NURSE

here’re these sweet wee children playing

no a care in aw the warld

what are grown up griefs to bairns? play away

for your mither things could not be worse

MANSERVANT

oh could they no?

so much you know auld yin

that’s no what I heard I tell you

NURSE

what did you hear?

MANSERVANT

I’m saying naething

NURSE

tell me what you heard

MANSERVANT

to say naething is already to have said too much

NURSE

speak to me we’re slaves

baith in the same sair place in this catastrophe

MANSERVANT

I know it and when I greet it will be for masel

I heard talk they never saw me

it was where the old men play at draughts and blether

and mibbe blethers is aw it is I hope so

word wis King Kreon and he’s the boss

means to banish these bairns and their mither

NURSE

no Jason

he wouldna! their mother mibbe

but no his best his maist beloved bairns

MANSERVANT

things cheynge this new Jason the day

does not give a tuppeny fuck for anybody in this hoose

NURSE

misery piled on misery and mair of it

new agony afore the first has done its worst

MANSERVANT

wheesht say naething

if it is this black

your mistress will ken aw aboot it

soon enough

NURSE

bairns do you hear what a faither you have?

I wish he were no I’ll not say it

I’ll no wish my lord and master dead but by Gods

the horror of how he treats those he should love!

MANSERVANT

get real old woman what’s the world about?

Jason can do so Jason does

hello bride bye bye bairns

NURSE

away in you go my bairnies watch them man

keep them away from their mother her hurt eyes of hate

what would she no do?

harm all harm

to your enemies Medea no those you love!

The first primal cry from MEDEA inside.

NURSE

there there wheesht my wee loves my bairnies

your poor mither she’s no right run

keep away from her thon’s no your mother

the state she’s in

The MANSERVANT hurries them indoors.

From off MEDEA cries out in a voice that is not Scots but a foreigner speaking good English – an ‘incomer voice’.

MEDEA

Why don’t you bloody die you

cursed litter of a cursed mother?

I hate my life and all I’ve done in it

I wish I’d never made you with your hated father

let it all crash around us in the ruins it’s in

NURSE

my marrow curdles to hear her curse what she most loves

is it no true the grand and horrid

passions of the high and mighty

rule them more cruelly

than they the rulers rule us humble folk?

a quiet life we’re thank Gods too dull

to draw doon the vengeance of the

ayeways angry Gods that look down and ayeways punish

them who think theirsels somebody