Euripides’ famous Medea returns to Ostrava after 60 years. In a new translation

“The theater commissioned a new translation of the classic play by the Greek writer Matyáš Havrda and the writer Petr Borkovec. On the stage of the Antonín Dvořák Theatre, the famous story of betrayal and cruel revenge will come to life again on Saturday, April 27,” said theater spokeswoman Šárka Swiderová.

She added that the play is conceived in a completely new way: “Because the story is still contemporary, even though the author lived approximately in 480-406 BC.” inserted

“We are looking for a way to speak to people in the present, but at the same time we do not want to write a new play, we want to be faithful to the original, to interpret the original meanings that are encoded in the text,” explained translator Matyáš Havrda.

Together with Borkovec, he already worked, for example, on the translation of Euripides’ play The Bacchante, which is performed by the National Theatre.

The translation of Havrda and Borkovec is only the fifth complete translation of Medea into the Czech language. The theater last staged it in 1965 in Václav Renč’s translation, with Zora Rozsypalová in the leading role.

The author of the scenic design in Ostrava, Petr Vítek, was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s famous film Enlightenment, which takes place in an abandoned hotel. “Our Médea also wanders through a crumbling hotel,” noted playwright Norbert Závodský.

“Perhaps no other character in the history of the theater arouses as much passion as Medea – a woman who, out of love for Jason, betrayed her father, killed her brother and left her homeland forever. She followed the man to Greece and bore him two children. After a few years, however, she has to make room for another woman, so out of revenge she cold-bloodedly plans and commits the worst act a mother can commit,” the spokeswoman recalled of the tragedy.

The main representative of Medea, Petra Kocmanová, pointed out that there is no idea of ​​greater suffering for a female tragic figure.

“Medea has nowhere to return, she burned all her bridges, sacrificed everything to Jason, and now she feels great pain. She’s in such a hopeless situation that she has no choice but to kill herself, which she feels is a concession, or the children, and that’s kind of—it gives me chills to say that—but it’s kind of a victory for her. The ultimate revenge,” the actress responded.

“Medea knows she won’t hurt him by killing herself, she’ll hurt him by killing his children,” she concluded.

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