Arts & Culture

Syracuse Stage to Hold Online Panel Discussion on ‘Medea and the Moment’ Monday Evening

Monday, June 8, 2020, By News Staff

Syracuse Stage will hold an online panel discussion, “Medea and the Moment,” on Monday, June 8, at 7 p.m. to discuss issues related to current events that are addressed in Euripides’ tragedy. Participants will have the opportunity to contribute questions and comments to the discussion. An online reading of the play was held on June 5.

Moderated by Joann Yarrow, director of community engagement and education, the scheduled seven- member discussion panel includes translator Charles Martin, performers Gillian Glasco (Medea) and Matt Chiorini (Jason), Stage artistic director Robert Hupp, associate artistic director Kyle Bass, “Medea” director April Sweeney and LightWork communications coordinator Cjala Surratt. The discussion will last approximately 45 minutes and may be accessed at  https://syracusestage.org/showinfo.php?id=99.

The connections between “Medea” and pressing issues of the day are immediate and multifaceted. Sweeney, the reading’s director and chair of the theater department at Colgate University, says “Euripides’ ancient play ‘Medea’ asks us to (re)consider a series of questions that at heart revolve around issues of injustice: who is deserving of rights in a society, who is valued and matters and at what cost?”

Martin notes, “There are so many aspects of ‘Medea’ that appeal to a modern audience. The character of Medea is wonderfully realized. She is a woman who has been abandoned by her husband (along with their children) and she is a stateless person, a political refugee.”

Originally scheduled as part of the 2019/2020 Cold Read Festival of New Plays, “Medea” moved online when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the festival’s cancellation. Although the Euripides’ tragedy dates from 431 BCE, “Medea” was included in the festival, which is dedicated to new work, because Martin’s new translation was published in 2019 by the University of California Press.

“As a festival and as an entity, ‘Cold Read’ is about introducing our audiences to new plays. For me, it’s exciting to present a nearly 2,500-year-old drama as a new play,” says Bass, who serves as the festival’s curator. “With his fleet and resonant new adaption, poet Charles Martin has made Euripides’ ‘Medea’ fresh and compelling. It speaks convincingly to our now.”