REVIEW: Medea with Child (Sideshow Theatre)

When the Goddess devours her own

Reviewed by Paige Listerud

Medea With Child by Janet Burroway confronts the shallowness of modern-day existence still under the burdens of sexism, racism, age-ism, and nationalism; only these age-old fault lines are compounded further by contemporary image obsession, especially as political manipulation. It’s also a play about a (supernaturally) powerful woman reeling over lost love, lost youth, lost dignity, and, therefore, needing no more pretenses regarding motherly devotion. Sideshow Theatre Company clearly has too much fun with this material, yet they are simply co-conspiring with the playwright’s fast-paced, satirical wit and inspired juxtapositions.

Based on Euripides’ classic play The Medea, Media (Sojourner Zenobia Wright) acts out as the ultimate, ethno-folkloric Mommie Dearest—slaughtering her children in revenge against her husband’s infidelity and his total sociopolitical displacement of her. Burroway keeps the theme of Media’s barbarism completely intact from the Ancient Greek original but stretches its metaphor of the total stranger to its outer limits. Perhaps even more than Euripides’ heroine, Media is the eternal sister outsider.

Rising mythically out of Africa’s primordial depths, Media’s expansive, magical perception of reality extends far beyond normal human experience. As a result, she lives in the perpetual state of no one ever really getting her. She can talk on and on to slippery politico Crayon (Richard Warner) or to wayward husband Chasten (John Bonner)—but no one truly understands what she is saying and thinking.

Indeed, given their own total self-absorption with image and all its ramifications, no one around Media may even be trying. This establishes to some of most sublime contradictions in the course of the play. Glossy (Nicole Richwalsky), Crayon’s daughter and Chasten’s new secretary/squeeze, proclaims herself a feminist and claims Media as her feminist icon. But she is wrong on both counts. Media is not a feminist; her powers do not come from feminism–they come from a more primal place and go well beyond anything so dry as feminist political theory. She is what every feminist wishes she could be—especially the old school, Second Wave warriors who claimed witches for their feminist role models. Likewise, Glossy’s upstaging of Media in her affair with Chasten could hardly be recognized as a feminist act. Indeed, Glossy seems more fascinated with Media’s celebrity feminist status than any actual empowerment for herself or other women. When all is said and done, she basks in Media’s reflected glory by bedding her husband.

It’s a fine example of Burroway’s wry, twisted wit winking through the dialogue. Sisterhood is powerful; but not when young feminist sister stabs sister in the back because she has a mistaken idea of what feminism is. It may be completely mute in the company of men who have no interest in contradicting Glossy and every interest in moving Media aside for a brand, new (post-feminist?) order. It’s not just that the prospect for women’s empowerment goes down the tubes. Puerility replaces substance; swapping out Glossy for Media is like substituting The Runaways with The Spice Girls.

By no means is that the limit of this play’s comic scope. Indeed, several viewings might be needed to savor every flavorful drop of its juicy, wicked goodness. Director Jonathan L. Green has assembled a superlative cast, all evenly sure and subtle in their delivery. As Media’s children, both in their play and their prognostications about mother, Fairies (Andrew Sa) and Murmurous (Lea Pascal) have the sacrificial victim thing disturbingly down pat.

So much meticulous attention has been given to every detail in performance and design each moment brings new discoveries and revelations. Joshua Lansing’s set design not only provides versatility, it places surprises in every corner. David Hyman’s construction of Media’s costume alone deserves an award and Wright certainly wears it well. She may be a killer, but girl knows how to bring the Hoodoo Mama chic!

One thing remains peculiarly striking, however. For all the humorous and inventive ways Burroway plays with the myth of Medea and Jason of the Argonauts, Media remains comparatively serious and unable to use humor as her weapon or shield. Wright’s portrayal of Media is nothing but fiercely and sensually witty, but Media herself seems unable to step back and realize the laughable ridiculousness of Chasten’s mid-life-crisis affair with shallow Glossy. In having Media feel too much and without ironic perspective, Burroway preserves the tragicomic nature of the play—exploring, as she wishes, the dark psychodynamics of enmeshed anti-motherhood and love’s betrayal. But is she, consciously or unconsciously, re-inscribing a humorless proto-feminism in the character of Media?

At the start of the play, Crayon holds up a list of possible options for the outcome of the story, in the hope that this time no one would have to die. I didn’t see a palimony option on that list. But palimonied freedom for Media and custody of the kids for Chasten and Glossy would be a completely different play, shifting the myth from tragedy to tragicomedy to comedy. The kind of 5^th century BCE political comedy that made Aristophanes famous–wherein the hero, through his trickster nature, overcame his opponents and got everything he wanted. Is Media, for all her dark power and mystical nature, still not a trickster? Does that kind of comic ending still only look good on men and not on women?

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Creative Team

Playwright – Janet Burroway
Director – Jonathan L. Green*
Production Stage Manager – Jessica R. Fike
Scenic Designer/Technical Director- Joshua Lansing
Costume Designer - David Hyman
Lighting Designer – Kimberlee Winters-Jones
Sound Designer/Composer- Christopher M. LaPorte*
Properties Designer - Makena Levine
Vocal/Dialect Coach - Karie Miller*
Dramaturg – Jeffrey Gardner
Violence and Movement Coach – Faith Noelle Hurley
Assistant Stage Manager – Nate Whelden*
Scenic Intern – Mary Mathyer
Charge Artist – Claire Jakubiszyn
Assistant Technical Director – Dane Lewandowski
Poster Image – Laurie Lipton
Production Manager – Betsey Palmer*
Producer – Sideshow Theatre Company

All Photography by Ian Epstein 

Cast

Media – Sojourner Zenobia Wright
Chasten – John Bonner
Murmurous – Lea Pascal
Fairies – Andrew Sa
Crayon – Richard Warner
Glossy – Nicole Richwalsky

Tags: Andrew Sa, Betsey Palmer, Christopher M. LaPorte, Claire Jakubiszyn, Dane Lewandowski, David Hyman, Euripides, Faith Noelle Hurley, Janet Burroway, Jeffrey Gardner, Jessica R. Fike, John Bonner, Jonathan L. Green, Joshua Lansing, Karie Miller, Kimberlee Winters-Jones, La Costa Theatre, Laurie Lipton, Lea Pascal, Makena Levine, Mary Mathyer, Medea with Child, Medea with Child Chicago review, Medea with Child review, Medea with Child Sideshow review, Nate Whelden, Nicole Richwalsky, Paige Listerud, Richard Warner, Sideshow Theatre Company, Sojourner Zenobia Wright, The Medea

Category: 2010 Reviews, Paige Listerud, Sideshow Theatre