Introduction to The National Theatre's production of Medea, starring Helen McCrory.

This was filmed at the British Museum, where Edith explains the importance of Euripides' classic tragedy, Medea. The short film was shown in cinemas at the time of the production.

[@johnnysongdujour]

I am so lucky to have seen H McC in Medea. I will never forget that!

[@mb.7105]

What a daunting play!

[@ТестТест-п3ч]

Спасибо вам за прекрасный фрагмент и напоминание о великой актрисе и очень красивой женщине. ❣️🎭

[@MacIntoshMann]

i understand ms. mccrory’s need as an actor to see things from the character’s point of view but i’m not sure that other speakers in the video aren’t being too kind to medea. ‘she was under extreme pressure’, ‘she’d been dealt a bad hand’. i know it’s all fiction anyway but we are talking about one of the most monstrous acts a human being can commit here. don’t let’s be too charitable to the old girl.

[@davidbreault3283]

This absoultely true, my only thing to say is just how much she devoted to Jason in jason and the Argonauts, only for him to cast her aside and try to get her banished WHILST cheating on her (and again she is NOT righteous by any means but it was some messed up stuff)

[@beccxlou]

I disagree, her acts were justified in my opinion as she felt her children’s life was the only thing she had left to control. and it was the only thing left that she could use to destroy Jason after he so cruelly destroyed her. Along with Creon who completely dismissed her power.

[@MacIntoshMann]

@@beccxlou ah, i see, so in order to get revenge on two men who had treated her cruelly she chooses not to murder the men in question but to murder two unrelated people who were completely innocent of any wrongdoing in the matter - indeed they were her own children. do you hear what you are saying? her behaviour is that of a deeply troubled, traumatised woman, yes, but it is nonetheless monstrous beyond belief.

[@beccxlou]

@@MacIntoshMann Yes i know it doesn’t really make sense, but she wasn’t allowed upstairs. If you notice, in the whole production, she is the only character who never goes beyond the staircase. Her children were the only possessions she had left that were hers. Creon exiled her so she lost her home, Jason married another woman so she lost her husband, and so her children were the only things she had control over. If you listen to her monologues she is deeply saddened by the murders but she was driven to madness by Jason… In my opinion, it was Jason and Creon who murdered the sons.. If that makes sense?

[@MacIntoshMann]

@@beccxlou i haven’t seen this production. i’m sure the whole matter is handled delicately and tactfully, and we are made to fully consider things from medea’s point of view. but regardless of how much she suffered at the hands of others, her character is an adult and capable of making informed decisions. the decision she made was to commit an utterly bestial act. medea suffers immensely. this is true. also true: she is a monster.