Heather C. Brady / Photo by Richard Fleischman provided by Theatre Unbound By John Townsend
Theatre Unbound and Green T Productions have collaborated on an arrestingly dramatic production of Medea: A Noh Cycle by Carol Sorgenfrei at St. Paul's Lowry Lab Theater. Unbound is known for its feminist comic flair. Green T for its weighty approach to classic male-dominated Japanese theater. The standard take on Medea's legend is Euripedes' Greek tragedy about events leading up to the slaughter of her own children. But Sorgenfrei's 1975 play adds earlier years when she magically aided Jason in attaining the Golden Fleece. It's a fuller portrait with satisfying epic sweep, performed in St. Paul with brutal integrity by Heidi Berg. We may not condone Medea's actions, but this forceful production illuminates the misogyny and injustice that compels her to vengeance. Director Kathy Welch has elicited a hypnotic mood of sacred ritual with gripping stylized performances that are deliberately slow and magnetically concentrated in their movement. Lisa Conley's gorgeous ceremonial costumes enhance the Noh spirit and Kabuki elements infused at points during the show's 2½ hours. Primal vocals are rigorously, sonorously, and impeccably narrated by the Greek Chorus: Ashley Davis, Natalie Remus, Nicole Wilder. They're serenely matched with Dixie Treichel's Zen-like soundscape of strings. Fiery Allen Malicsi, the production's only male, crackles as husband Jason. Erika Danielle Crane is fabulously catty as ill-fated Cruesa, the younger woman he fixates on. Ellen Apel as the Nurse captures the wearing anguish of one who has long watched folly fatefully unfold but is powerless to intercede. Medea: A Noh Cycle Lowry Lab Theater, 350 St. Peter St., St. Paul. 7:30 p.m. Thu., Fri. & Sat. 2 p.m. Sun. Ends April 25. Tickets: $12-$26. $10 with Fringe Festival button. 612-721-1186. <www.TheatreUnbound.com.>
