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media, the
foreigner

July 2010

Teatro da Comuna, Lisbon

November 2010

Bridewell Theatre, London

Datasheet:

Adaptation and Staging

Patrícia Carreira

Adapted from

Euripides Medea

Co-creation

Patricia Carreira and Nicole Pschetz

Interpretation  (Lisbon)

Nicole Pschetz, André Amálio, Carlos Vieira de Almeida

Interpretation  (London)

Nicole Pschetz, Pete Picton,
André Amálio

Cello

Carolina Matos (Lisbon) and Nina Plapp (London)

costumes

Lenka Padysakova

scenography

José Manuel Castanheira

light design

Aldeia da Luz (Hugo Coelho)

Scenographic adaptation and of
light design (London)

Ingrid Hu

 

Movement

Nicole Pschetz

staging assistance

Sara Martínez-Viejo

Scene Assistance 

Miguel Maia (Lisbon) and Beci
Ryan (London)

Technical support

Claire Childs (London)

Graphic design

Mafalda Moreiro

Photography

Sofia Berberan

Video

icreatefilms (Rungano Nyoni)

Scenario Building

Empresa Portuguesa de Cenarios, Lda.

Production

Background

Co-Production

Torta Strain Company

Ministry funded project
of Culture, DGArtes.

Medeia a Estrangeira, Teatro, Cepa Torta

The foreigner Medea fled her homeland and lives in Corinth with her new family where she builds a home - a physical space and a sentimental space. But this one is destroyed by Jason, who is also a foreigner trying to create his spaces and adapt to the new society, by marrying the heiress to the throne, thinking that this is the best option. Medea the Stranger is an adaptation of the play by Euripides, where Medea reacts in an animal way to betrayal, primary reactions, not rational, not characteristic of a Greek. The loss of physical space follows with the expulsion of Creon, sovereign of Corinth, displaying the lack of rights of a foreigner and his lack of belonging, and underlining the strength of the power of the non-foreigner. Without something as basic as physical and sentimental spaces, survival has to be done through your own culture, rules and laws, not local ones. Medea does what she thinks is best, according to her rules and her mental space, something that is considered non-human: killing her children, also foreigners like Medea and liable to suffer from the same ailment. She takes their lives away from them so they don't suffer the pain she suffered or understand her own father's betrayal. Reflecting on this lack of belonging of someone in a country other than his own, the staging worked  also the experiences of the director and actors as foreigners, both socially and emotionally and artistically.

Taking advantage of the specialized training of actress Nicole Pschetz in physical theater, this adaptation had  an important body component at the level of content, where the body exists in a strange space, and at the level of form, where images are counted as well as words.

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