Medea

Teatro Anónimo places special emphasis on the world of children in this production, which is based on society today. The children in the original version are replaced by music and, when adults need to talk to them, they do so to an empty space. “It becomes clear that children have no voice. Nobody cares what they go through and feel and they are walked all over”, says Trinidad González.

Music is a very important part of all of Teatro Anónimo’s productions and plays a key role in this piece. Composer and actor Tomás González says that the aim of the musical clues he created is to move the audience, giving the performance a layer of sentiment and taking them to a physical and mental space they recognize. In this case, the idea was to transport them into Greek culture without making it sound cold or outdated. “The aim was to create tension and an expressivity that perhaps old-fashioned music wouldn’t be able to achieve. When composing the music, I was inspired by a recording of Medea’s first monologue by the nursemaid, spoken in Ancient Greek. That’s where I got the sounds from, from the original Greek meter created in situ, creating a certain atmosphere using a saxophone, guitars and flutes”, says González. The parts sung by the chorus, adds Trinidad González, have a very recognizable Latin American sound, “like a Chilean cantata. Without saying ‘We’re in Chile’, it’s a way of bringing the play closer to our reality”.

The company works hard to bridge the gap to a text written in the fifth century a.C. but whose ideas are still relevant. Medea is a classic and this version - both in its performances and in its costumes and staging - aims to convey its very essence to the audience. “The ideas are presented as they would be today”, says Mateo Cittarella, actor, musician and assistant director. In the lead roles are two guest artists: Nina de la Maza from La Re-Sentida and Moisés Angulo from Teatro La María.

Euripides (480 a.C. - 406 a.C.): Together with Sophocles and Aeschylus, he is considered one of Ancient Greece’s three great poets. His work, however, reflects the everyday life of citizens, as opposed to the heroics and spiritual concepts favored by the first tragedies. His writing reveals his characters’ psychology; they are distressed by dark feelings and secrets that they cannot let go of. Euripides left a legacy of more than 92 plays, of which 18 have been recovered, including Electra, Medea, Helen, Cyclops, Orestes, The Trojan Women and Phoenician Women.

Greek tragedy: This dramatic genre reached its apogee in the fifth century a.C. in Athens, Greece and is based on the sacred myths and portrayals of this civilization. Its heroes inevitably face a tragic end. Its name comes from the Greek word tragoedia, which means ‘ode to the male goat’, referring to the song that the Greeks sang in honor of the god Dionysius.

-Check out Trinidad González’s interview on Teatroamil.tv, in which she talks about Carnaval, Teatro Anónimo’s acclaimed first production.

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