Greek Tragedies for Modern Times

By LESLIE MIZELL

That Euripides sure could spin a yarn, huh?

The Greek tragedian was the first playwright to feature independent women and slaves with as much (or more) intelligence than their masters. His characters were driven by strong motives and expressed inner turmoil both innovations when he was at his peak about 425 B.C.

By coincidence, his two best-known plays, “Medea” and “The Trojan Women,” will be staged in the Piedmont during April, the former at N.C. A&T and the latter at the N.C. School of the Arts. Both are updates of sorts, although the directors of the shows are coming at them from completely different angles.

In Greensboro, Miller Lucky Jr., an associate professor of theater at A&T, has rewritten “Medea” from a contemporary viewpoint, turning its spurned sorceress into a physically and mentally abused wife. It’s his second take on the tragedy, having adapted and directed it in 1999 for A&T.

“Unfortunately, if you do the research, the way women were treated in those days is not far removed from the present,” Lucky says.

The title character in “Medea” is the first wife of Jason, from the Greek myth “Jason and the Golden Fleece.” Now that he’s famous, he has cast her aside to marry the daughter of King Creon. Medea, about to be exiled and consumed with jealousy and betrayal, plots a horrific revenge.

“In freely adapting it,” Lucky says, “I’ve kept Euripides’ themes and format in the way the plot reveals itself. But I’ve put it in language for a younger audience of the hip-hop generation. I’ve used spoken word, rap music, even gospel.”

Because Medea is considered a “barbarian” from a different land, Lucky’s Medea will still speak in a traditional Greek classic style, struggling to understand and communicate with those using hip-hop language.

Lucky’s adaptation includes contributions from eclectic urban musician JimiJames , who was known as Moria Denson when she was an A&T theater student.

“I wanted to use a lot of music from her CD (JimiJames The Truth’),” Lucky says, “but since she has been here, she’s become so involved with the show that she wrote a new song for it. We also have original sound and beats by our musical director, Stephanie Gray.”

In Winston-Salem, John Langs, the School of the Arts’ guest director, is letting the audience’s knowledge of current events provide the update of “The Trojan Women,” which was written at the time of the Peloponnesian War shortly after Athens decimated the island of Melos.

“This play was the first political outcry about a democratic society going to a neutral country and sacking it,” Lang says. “While it has obvious comparisons to Iraq and the Sudan, we wanted it to speak of all wars, not just any one. We’re presenting a modern, young military army with no idea of or respect for the country it’s invading, while the women reflect their ancient and proud heritage and rituals.”

“The Trojan Women” takes place after the fall of Troy, as its women Queen Hecuba, slave Andromache and beautiful Helen, who was the cause of the war grow to realize their enduring spirits will help them come to terms with their destroyed city, their dead husbands and their families about to be enslaved.

“It’s tricky to pull off,” Langs says. “It’s a theatrical, long dramatic poem that’s not meant to be realistic. We’ve talked about how it’s more of a prayer or a spell that evokes the emotional impact of war.”

Both directors point out that these plays are not ones easily forgotten by their young casts. Lucky’s students have been involved with “Medea” since December, contributing ideas, lines and even poems to the completed work, which Lucky is readying for publication.

Early in the rehearsal process, the cast of juniors and seniors involved with “The Trojan Women” began bringing in newspaper clippings and Internet accounts of war atrocities and life in displaced-person camps. Those stories now cover a wall of the rehearsal space.

“It’s as true now as it was then that an occupying force instills fear and terror by humiliation, degradation and targeted sexual abuse,” Langs says. “The dramatic structure of this play is so primitive, it feels more like a ritual of remembering, and these actors have taken a dark journey and allowed it to affect their world view.”

It’s an impact Euripides is likely to have for another 2,400 years.

“Love, hate, war, vengeance, the good and the evil will be here throughout time,” Lucky says. “He’s a playwright who could capture those stories.”

Leslie Mizell has been covering the Triad’s theater scene for more than a decade. Her column runs weekly in Go Triad. Contact her at LAMizell@aol.com.

(c) 2008 Greensboro News Record. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.