How does one create a good production of Medea? Attempting a “faithful” reproduction, especially in translation, seems a futile undertaking. To begin with, modern audiences are not ancient Greek citizens celebrating all-day rituals in the hot outdoors! Yet the modern tendency to adapt, rather than directly translate, ancient Greek drama for the stage is based on the idea that today's audiences cannot relate to the text. The temptation to adapt as well as translate – seen, for example, in Robinson Jeffers’ frequently performed English-language adaptation of Medea, might appear to make the story more compelling and compact (Why have a messenger? Give that speech to the Nurse!). But actors and audiences lose something important in the process. They lose the poetry and cohesiveness of the language – the lyric word choices, the rhythm of the lines, the repetition of the themes as expressed in multiple characters, and, dare I say, the integrity of the play itself.

For this translation, Diane Rayor, working with a team of professional actors during an actual production, created and refined her work to produce the most accurate and sonorous language that could be heard. While Rayor's task was to create a theatrical and precise translation of the play, my task as director was to ensure, through this pilot production, its potentiality. Because a play that doesn't “play”…well, that doesn't make much sense!