| Year/Length: | 2024, 90’ (Italian premiere) |
|---|---|
| With: | Peter Seynaeve, Bernice Van Walleghem, Aiko Benaouisse, Ella Brennan, Helena van de Casteele, Juliette Debackere, Elias Maes |
| Concept and direction: | Milo Rau |
| Dramaturgy: | Kaatje De Geest |
| Video design: | Moritz von Dungern |
| Sound design: | Elia Rediger |
| Lighting design: | Dennis Diels |
| Set design: | ruimtevaarders |
| Costumes: | Jo De Visscher |
| Prop design: | Joris Soenen |
| Production: | NTGent |
| Co-production: | La Biennale di Venezia, Wiener Festwochen, ITA - Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Tandem - Scène nationale (Arras Douai) |
| Notes: | Show in Dutch language with surtitles. English translation by Helen White |
Theatre
Milo Rau - Medea’s Children
Description
With Medea’s Children, Milo Rau takes a new, deep look at the role of children in theatre. A real criminal case is the starting point: the case of a mother who, in total despair, decides to kill her children and take her own life – but she survives. This modern tragedy is interweaved with the classical tragedy Medea, the most infamous case of relationship conflict and infanticide in Western literature.
A group of children take this bloody crime case and the perhaps darkest origin narrative of European culture as an opportunity to reflect on themselves: on family history, first love and first encounters with death, on desires for the future and fears of the end of the world that haunts us all. How does a child deal with the divorce of its parents? With injustice, the breaking of friendships, the pressure at school? How do they deal with the radical power of Medea – with tragedy in general? The children, condemned to silence in the classical tragedies, finally have their say this time around.