MEDEA of EURIPIDES by the Cultural Organization Arcadia

Cultural Organization ‘Arcadia’ presents the Ancient Greek Tragedy “Medea” of Euripides at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, on Tuesday 15 April 2014, at 20:30. Introduction-prologue will be addressed by the author, critic, theatre studies expert Leandros Polenakis. The profits of the performance will be donated to a voluntary hostel for abused women.

Director’s aspect
Greek tragedy is characterized by its survival through the ages. The issues dealt with, refer to the eternal and touch the nature of Being and the non Being.

The philosophical questions travel beyond civilizations and frontiers, deal with and dissect, upturning the inner Human Being and the facets of the soul.

What issues, in the past, were in the hands of Philosophy to analyze and unfold, are now  dealt with by Science and more precisely by Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. Wanting to demonstrate the weakness of the badly interpreted scientific analysis of aforementioned situations, I place the plot in the presentation of a therapeutically drama at a Psychiatric Congress.

A psychiatrist presents the Ancient Greek Tragedy “Medea” in a form of drama therapy at a Psychiatric Congress (audience). The characters are, according to science, ill because of Love. As the Tragedy unfolds, the psychiatrist adheres to the personages and via the tragic text and the plot of the Tragedy, we follow his own “descent” into the deepest nooks and folds of his being as well as that of all the other characters, resulting in the Analysis, the Crushing, the Understanding, as well as the Catharsis that comes with the Liberation, which is none other that Acceptance, Personal Responsibility, the Price to pay  and the superlative Forgiveness deriving from Divinity with Medea’s ascension to heaven in the chariot of her ancestor, God Helios (Sun).

During the unfolding of the Tragedy, we also follow the severe lashing on vanity, racism, ingratitude and the lack of respect as regards Male and Female.

The violin, performed live on stage is part of the Tragedy plot and represents  the Gods and the Deus ex Machina – the Chariot of God Helios (Sun), Medea’s ancestor.