As we eagerly await this weekend’s DramaSoc show, I had the pleasure of speaking with Medea’s director, Mina Dodd, and producer, Ruby Large. Medea tells a story of maritial infedelity, betrayal and madness. Originally pitched and cast in December 2024, it features DramaSoc’s most female-dominated cast in over two years.
So what drew you to Medea?
Mina: I love doing classical plays and recently I watched the production of it by National Theater which featured Helen McCrory. It was such a well-done production and I wanted to bring it to the Barn.
Ruby: It had initially been pitched solely by Mina and when she approached me with it, I was immediately on-board. I resonated so well with the set design and ideas that Mina had and felt like I could really help bring it all together. I’ve done acting roles before but this has been my first producing role.
What is something you want people to take away from the production?
Mina: I think it’s important they don’t come out firmly on the side of either Jason or Medea. It isn’t about sympathizing with either of them. The play is really more about emotional manipulation and the way their actions just get increasingly extreme.
How did you deal with the intensity of the play’s subject matter?
Mina and Ruby: We have an intimacy coordinator and she’s mostly there to help make sure that all the actors are ok and that the emotions are left in the room. It is an emotionally strenuous play and while there’s no actual violence enacted on stage, the incredibly poetic but also visceral descriptions of death can be really intense.
Tell me about the practicalities of bringing this show to life.
Mina: The role of Medea is extremely demanding. Renée, who plays her, is a force to be reckoned with. She’s on stage nearly the entire time and her performance is just electric.
Ruby: The other massive role is the Chorus which is made up of three performers. This is obviously a reduction from the typically large chorus in a lot of classical plays and the actors also multirole as different characters.
How have you adapted the Chorus to suit your adaptation of the play?
Mina: The Chorus is more sympathetic to Medea than Jason in this adaptation. Other changes we’ve made are things like making the nurse a stronger, young woman rather than a more matronly figure. In general, the Chorus interacts more with other characters.
Ruby: Even in non-speaking moments, the Chorus are always on stage. It creates a stronger bond and familiarity between the characters rather than the Chorus feeling separate from the action of the play. Creusa, Creon’s daughter has a non-speaking role in the play but because her actress is also in the Chorus, she’s able to haunt the narrative even in scenes she’s not in. There’s also an acute awareness that something is going to happen in how she is played.
Talk me through the more technical aspects of the production.
Mina: The entire stage is a liminal space, the backdrop is mostly Medea’s house placed behind mesh to create a constant reminder of danger or discomfort in this space that should be safe. We didn’t want to make it entirely modern or entirely ancient, the actors are in modern clothes but there are touches of ancient Greece throughout the costuming such as a laurel wreath.
Ruby: We’ve also rearranged the seating configuration in the Barn to allow for a larger stage. The
soundtrack is largely classical music with little snippets of modern music to reinforce the inbetween feeling of the liminal space.
MEDEA ran from the 7th to the 9th of March, 2025. (This article has been digitised from our Spring Print)