Date: 2006-08-10 10:27:14+00:00
Keywords: General; Language Arts & Disciplines; Classics; Mythology; Plays; English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh; Theatre; Read For School; Fiction; Tragedy; Ancient & Classical; Literature; European; School; Drama
Description: The Greek Tragedy in New Translations series is based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves, or who work in collaboration with poets, can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of the great Greek writers. These new translations are more than faithful to the original text, going beyond the literal meaning in order to evoke the poetic intensity and rich metaphorical texture of the Greek language. Euripides was one of the most popular and controversial of all the Greek tragedians, and his plays are marked by an independence of thought, ingenious dra
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Rights: © Rachel Cusk, 2015

MEDEA

Euripides

MEDEA
a new version by Rachel Cusk

OBERON BOOKS
LONDON

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First published in 2015 by Oberon Books Ltd
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Copyright © Rachel Cusk, 2015

Rachel Cusk is hereby identified as author of this version in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted her moral rights.

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to The Wylie Agency, 17 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JA (mail@wylieagency.co.uk). No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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PB ISBN: 978-1-78319-887-0
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-78319-888-7

Photograph by David Stewart

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Contents

Characters

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 9

Scene 10

Scene 11

Scene 13

Scene 14

Scene 15

Scene 16

Scene 17

Scene 18

Scene 19

Characters

NURSE

TUTOR

MEDEA

JASON

CLEANER

WOMAN 1/2/3/4/5

BOY 1/2

CREON

AEGEUS

This adaptation was commissioned by and originally produced at the Almeida, where it had its first performance on Friday 25 September, 2015.

Company

CLEANER

Michele Austin

NURSE

Amanda Boxer

AEGEUS

Richard Cant

CREON/TUTOR

Andy de la Tour

MEDEA

Kate Fleetwood

MESSENGER/CHORUS

Charlotte Randle

JASON

Justin Salinger

CHORUS

Sarah Belcher

Ruth Everett

Georgina Lamb

Emily Mytton

BOYS

Guillermo Bedward

Xavier Moras Spencer

Lukas Rolfe

Louis Sayers

Samuel Smith

Joseph West

Creative Team

Direction

Rupert Goold

Set

Ian MacNeil

Costume

Holly Waddington

Composition and Sound

Adam Cork

Light

Neil Austin

Choreography

Scott Ambler

Casting

Julia Horan CDG

Assistant Direction

Sara Joyce

Costume Supervision

Deborah Andrews

Trainee Director

David Loumgair

SCENE 1

NURSE

She says she’s not hungry.

Pause.

That’s a lovely piece of chicken she’s let go to waste. It’s grilled you know, not fried. She’s very particular about that. But this was grilled – no fat on it at all.

It’s from the butcher’s – it isn’t supermarket meat. I know she’s particular about that. I went all the way up to the butcher’s for it on Market Hill.

I hate to see decent food go to waste. You should have seen some of the things I was expected to eat as a child. Vegetables all covered in black spots! The thing was, you had to eat them – in those days you had no choice.

MEDEA can be heard crying.

I’ve told her, crying won’t bring him back. Besides, it’s very ageing. But you can’t reason with her – you never could. It’s like trying to reason with a rock. The trouble is, she’s got no self-control.

Pause.

Such a waste! I wouldn’t eat my dinner once, and my father picked it up and crammed it in my mouth. No, she doesn’t get her way by crying. I said to her, you’re not a child any more. You’re a grown woman with two children of your own – whatever will people think? I said to her, pull yourself together for their sake!

TUTOR

My mother said children ruin your life.

NURSE

I said to her, all that feminism you went in for! You always gave the impression you could manage just as well without him, and now look at you – sobbing like a schoolgirl with a broken heart! Equal this and equal that – I said to her, the trouble was you let him think he could do as he pleased. Frankly I never saw what was ‘feminine’ about it. It’s just another word for girls keeping dirty habits.

TUTOR

My mother said it’s men that are the dirty ones.

NURSE

I said to her, there’s a reason men and women have always lived as they do – because it’s in their interests to live that way. But you thought you could do things differently, I said. You used to laugh at me, I said, but who’s laughing now? I said to her, you can’t just come back saying it was all a mistake. You’ve made your bed, I said.

TUTOR

My mother called it disgusting, what my father did to her in in bed.

NURSE

There’s no point wishing things had been different – you can’t turn back time! Particularly when there are children: there’s no denying them. I said to her, if you haven’t learned by now that as a mother you come last, then you’re in for a bumpy ride.

TUTOR

She said when I was born I broke her insides.

NURSE

I said to her, I could have told you but you wouldn’t have listened. She never did listen to me. The trouble was you spoiled her. You couldn’t keep your hands off her.

TUTOR

I’m a dirty pig.

NURSE

It’s no wonder she feels sorry for herself. You let her think she was important.

MEDEA appears and sits on TUTOR’s lap.

People like us never considered divorce, you know. We never took ourselves that seriously.

MEDEA

Why not?

NURSE

Children don’t need to hear about their parents’ dirt. You ought to tidy yourself up, put some make-up on and pull yourself together for their sake. They’re not to blame, poor lambs. They’re as clean and innocent as a pair of snowdrops.

TUTOR

My mother said men were dirty pigs.

MEDEA

Did she love you?

NURSE

What a question! Mothers always love their children.

TUTOR

She let me suck her titties, to bring on her milk for the baby.

MEDEA

Then she must have loved you in a way.

TUTOR

She hated your mother.

NURSE

It wasn’t me she hated, it was you. She hated all men.

TUTOR

She said she wished I’d never been born.

MEDEA

Do you feel anything for her now?

TUTOR

Nothing. When I think about her, I feel nothing at all.

SCENE 2

A middle class, vaguely bohemian domestic space. There is a kitchen on one side and a large sofa in the middle. The room is empty. A telephone rings and the message is recorded.

JASON

It’s – ah – it’s me. Look, about yesterday – the thing is, we’ve just got to stop this ridiculous fighting. It’s bad for us and bad for the – ah – boys. You’re getting – it’s just getting completely out of control. Look, the thing is, you’ve really got to try to control your anger. We both know that’s a big – ah – a challenge for you. But you’ve got to start accepting some responsibility for what’s happened. I mean, it’s not like this has come from nowhere. There are always, always two sides. (Pause.) I mean, anyone would think we were the first couple ever to get divorced but it’s actually – I mean, thousands of people get divorced every day. It’s actually incredibly, incredibly common. (Pause.) Look, all I want is what’s fair. You know what the legal position is. We each get half of everything. I’ve told the lawyer to expect the forms, so call me if there’s anything you don’t understand. Okay?

SCENE 3

A group of WOMEN holding dolls and coffee cups.

WOMAN 1

I can’t function this morning. I’m like, where’s the caffeine IV?

WOMAN 2

Shall we take off your coat?

WOMAN 3

The guys were back early last night.

WOMAN 2

Is it too hot in here? Shall Mummy take off your coat?

WOMAN 3

Joe said hardly anyone turned up.

WOMAN 4

You know I’m doing this fasting thing?

WOMAN 3

He says it’s really hard.

WOMAN 1

I’ve told you about next door, right?

WOMAN 4

It’s only eight fifteen and I’m bloody starving.

WOMAN 1

One in the morning they start up.

WOMAN 2

Shall Mummy get you a babycino?

WOMAN 3

The thing is, everyone’s just so busy.

WOMAN 1

I’m like, look, I know we’re not working to a timetable here –

WOMAN 2

Would you like that?

WOMAN 1

– but you know, can you please just split up?

WOMAN 3

He thinks maybe men find it harder to prioritise friendship.

WOMAN 1

I’ll call the lawyer, I’ll fill in the forms, I’ll do it all.

WOMAN 4

What can you have when you’re fasting?

WOMAN 1

Just let me get some sleep!

WOMAN 3

That’s the thing about men’s groups.

WOMAN 4

Almond croissant – do you think they do that without the almonds?

WOMAN 3

They sort of just fizzle out.

WOMAN 4

Or the croissant?

WOMAN 3

The thing is, everyone’s just really tired on a weeknight.

Pause. WOMEN jiggle dolls and drink coffee.

WOMAN 5

Derek said he had a right laugh on Friday.

WOMAN 1

Was that with – you know – (Whisper.) the husband?

WOMAN 5

Amazebags house, apparently.

WOMAN 4

Isn’t that the one –

WOMAN 3

I didn’t know Derek knew him.

WOMAN 4

– that was on TV?

WOMAN 5

He sees him a bit through work, you know –

WOMAN 3

Oh, work.

WOMAN 5

– just, you know, yeah. Work.

WOMAN 1

I heard it was, you know, massive.

WOMAN 5

He says he isn’t stand-offish at all.

WOMAN 4

I’m sure I saw it on TV.

WOMAN 5

I mean, given who he is and everything.

WOMAN 1

I wonder how much a house like that actually costs.

WOMAN 5

His new woman’s loaded, apparently.

WOMAN 4

I just can’t remember the programme.

WOMAN 5

Derek said it was, you know –

WOMAN 3

Do you think Joe should approach him –

WOMAN 5

Bollinger all night.

WOMAN 3

– to join the men’s group?

WOMAN 5

They’ve got a pool in the basement.

WOMAN 4

Or do you think it could be Alzheimer’s?

WOMAN 5

So at midnight they’re all absolutely pissed and swimming around together in this pool.

WOMAN 2

In their clothes?

WOMAN 5

Starkers, apparently.

WOMAN 4

Was there any food?

WOMAN 5

And he starts talking about this really big thing he’s up for.

WOMAN 2

Isn’t her dad –

WOMAN 5

Derek swore me to secrecy.

WOMAN 2

– something big in the film industry?

WOMAN 1

So she’s got the body and the connections.

WOMAN 5

This goes no further, right?

They confer in whispers.

WOMAN 2

Oh my God.

WOMAN 1

Talk about a good career move.

WOMAN 4

She must wonder if it’s her he’s after, or – you know?

WOMAN 3

I really don’t think –

WOMAN 1

God, men are such sods.

WOMAN 3

– we should be making those kinds of allegations.

Pause.

WOMAN 1

Did Derek meet her?

WOMAN 5

He said she came in later.

WOMAN 4

Apparently she’s –

WOMAN 3

Were they dressed?

WOMAN 4

– some kind of model.

WOMAN 5

Were who?

WOMAN 3

By the time she came in. Were they dressed?

WOMAN 1

She’s quite young, apparently.

WOMAN 4

Well that’s original.

WOMAN 5

Derek says she’s absolutely gorgeous.

WOMAN 2

Derek’s such a love.

WOMAN 3

I did think the husband seemed like a really nice guy.

WOMAN 5

It’s the ex-wife who’s a bit, you know –

WOMAN 1

I know what you mean.

WOMAN 5

It’s funny how some women just – they just sort of don’t –

WOMAN 1

– fit in.

WOMAN 5

I mean, it feels awful to say it, but you kind of feel –

WOMAN 3

– she brought it on herself.

WOMAN 1

You want to say, you know, I’m sure it’s hard –

WOMAN 5

You just sort of can’t –

WOMAN 1

– but we’ve all been there. Do you know what I mean?

WOMAN 5

– really sympathise with someone like that.

WOMAN 4

I mean, when I met you guys for example, I instantly felt –

WOMAN 1

You want to say, you know to some extent –

WOMAN 4

– you were on my side.

WOMAN 1

– just get over yourself.

Pause.

WOMAN 5

I mean, you just sort of know, don’t you?

WOMAN 4

I mean, nobody’s judging here, are they?

WOMAN 1

Nobody’s saying, you know –

WOMAN 2

– it’s harder for me.

WOMAN 4

Are they?

MEDEA has entered at a distance.

WOMAN 1

Have you seen her lately?

WOMAN 5

She’s gone very Belsen.

WOMAN 2

Isn’t she a writer?

WOMAN 4

It’s called the divorce diet.

WOMAN 1

You do have to feel a bit sorry for her.

WOMAN 4

Apparently you lose two pounds for every year it lasted.

WOMAN 1

Do you know what I mean?

WOMAN 5

I said hello to her at the school gate the other day –

WOMAN 2

She’s quite well known apparently.

WOMAN 5

– and she absolutely blanked me.

WOMAN 4

I suppose if I’m really desperate –

WOMAN 2

I’ve never read anything she’s written.

WOMAN 4

– I could try it.

WOMAN 1

Apparently she had no idea he was even having an affair.

WOMAN 5

I thought, you know, snooty cow –

WOMAN 3

How could she not have known –

WOMAN 2

I think it’s quite –

WOMAN 3

– her husband was having an affair?

WOMAN 2

– heavy.

WOMAN 5

– get a grip, you’re not the only one –

WOMAN 3

I mean, how can you not know?

WOMAN 5

– with problems?

WOMAN 1

It’s the children you’ve got to feel sorry for.

WOMAN 3

I mean, did she not keep tabs on his phone?

WOMAN 1

They’re the ones who really suffer.

WOMAN 3

Did she not keep an eye –

WOMAN 1

– aren’t they?

WOMAN 3

– on the situation?

WOMAN 5

She isn’t exactly what you’d call a normal mother.

WOMAN 1

They get scarred for life, apparently.

WOMAN 2

I mean, I’m not saying it’s not well written.

WOMAN 3

Some women just seem to bring it on themselves.

WOMAN 5 (Whispers, looking over at MEDEA.)

I mean, I’d be calling Childline if I were them.

WOMAN 1

You’ve just got to keep it together for the children.

WOMAN 2

I’ve just heard it’s quite –

WOMAN 1

Haven’t you?

WOMAN 5

She’s not, you know, one of us.

WOMAN 2

– angry?

MEDEA

I know you. I know what you’re like.
You think I should keep it to myself.
I know what you’re like, all warm in your bed of compromise.
A bad thing has happened to me.
You’re scared that if I name it, it might happen to you too.
It’s warm in your beds, warm and dark, and you’re half-asleep.
You shrink from the cold air – you screw up your eyes against the light.
Haven’t you heard? Out of suffering comes truth.
I’ll put it another way for you: pain is reality; it can’t be denied,
unless you deform yourself hiding it, like you do.
All that dissembling has made you ugly.
You learned it at your mothers’ breasts,
how to powder your faces, how to lie, even to yourselves,
while truth stalks the dark of your minds like an assassin.
He’ll find you eventually, hunt you down and show you to yourselves,
with your bored husbands, your selfish children, your slack bodies
and minds.
Yes, all that dissembling takes its toll,
fawning on men and property like the dogs you are,
making a living, like any prostitute must.
I’d rather be dead than unfree.
I’d rather bare my neck to the assassin truth than run away from
him any longer.
Someone turned the lights on – now he can see me, but I can see
him too.
Sleep, woman, sleep.
Lie back in your bed and close your eyes.
You won’t even feel it when he creeps to your side and slits your throat.
What’s that you say? What about love?
Yes, you’re loving souls aren’t you?
You love the whole world. You love your little hearts out.
It’s all right, you can hate me.
Go ahead, feel free.
It’s so much easier than hating yourselves.

SCENE 4

The sitting room. MEDEA is sitting writing at her desk. The CLEANER is dusting and tidying.

CLEANER

You want I make the floor?

Pause.

You want I make the floor in here?

Pause.

I make it next week. It not so dirty.

I am all the time in the boys’ rooms. Long long time! People say man work, woman drink coffee. I say, what country that? Sound nice, but I never visit.

Pause.

It make me very happy to be in those rooms. It remind me of my son’s room back at home. All the same things! The little men, the little cars, everything so small. Your one son like football, no?

My son the same. Even the – the –

MEDEA

The smell.

CLEANER

The smell just the same!

MEDEA

Where is your son?

CLEANER

Oh, he stay in Brazil. He stay with my mother. Maybe I see him in spring. Depends of the money. It costs a lot, a lot to make the flight. I say to him, you prefer see me or get playstation this Christmas?

MEDEA

Does he say?

CLEANER

What?

MEDEA

Does he say which he’d prefer?

CLEANER

He say he want both!

MEDEA

What about his father?

CLEANER

Oh, he not interest. He got new wife, she young and jealous. She don’t want his love wasted on my son. Sometimes he come around, he leave again after five minutes. He say, Marta, what happened, the boy turned into a mariposa! He all the time crying, like a little baby! I say yah, it’s true, he don’t feel so good, his daddy left him.

MEDEA

You must be angry.

CLEANER

Oh, at first I want to kill him – and kill her twice as bad!

MEDEA

How would you do it?

CLEANER

What?

MEDEA

How would you kill them?

CLEANER (Laughs.)

Yah, you right, I think about it! They live in nice apartment where the carpets all white. I imagine taking big knife into their room one night and turn all those white carpets red. I imagine set fire to that apartment so they melt like two big candles. Is nice to imagine! But then I think, is too much risk. Someone see me, the police come, I go to jail. I think, oh no, that even worse than this! My mother, she say to me, make it like poison in the blood, Marta. Make it silent, invisible. Oh, I try to think how, but is no good. Mama say, trouble with you Marta, you not smart enough. You still love that good for nothing. I say to her, is better to love, no? Love is like sunshine, it make everything the same.

MEDEA

There must be some way to punish them.

CLEANER

When I come here I think, yah, now they don’t laugh at me. I think, now they feel bad. I think it punish them for me to be gone. But instead I get punish. I miss Mama, I miss Jose, I all the time alone. I talk to Mama on the phone – her voice so small! She say, you want revenge, is simple – be happy! But I don’t feel. She say, well at least you can pretend!

MEDEA

That’s the hardest thing of all.

CLEANER

Woman is good at pretending. That’s all she’s good for.

My mother say, if you ain’t a good liar, you got no business being a woman!

Pause.

If it isn’t for my son I don’t care so much. If it isn’t for Jose, none of this ever happen. Woman always get hurt through the child. She like a kite: she all crazy visible but the wind that blow her invisible. Better not to have the child. Better be a nobody to anybody.

MEDEA

In the early days my husband had a bicycle.
I would sit on the seat and steer
And he would pedal, to get us home.
There was a long steep hill we used to go down.
He’d shout over his shoulder, fasten your seatbelt!
He’d let off the brakes and down we’d go,
so fast I was afraid,
knowing that if he lost control
I’d be done for.
Marriage is a game of trust.
Yes, a game that goes on and on
until it becomes your life.
You trust the sun will rise tomorrow –
you never consider that it won’t.
Trust is like a pane of glass.
When it’s clean you hardly know it’s there.
But smash it and you’re cut to shreds.
The cold comes in, such cold.
One day my husband said, have you forgotten?
This was only a game, remember?
I’m just a man and you’re just a woman
and this was a game we played for a while.
Wasn’t it?

SCENE 5

MEDEA and JASON in the sitting room talking to one another on their phones.

MEDEA

You took the kitchen table.

JASON

The table belongs to me. I told you –

MEDEA

In what sense –

JASON
it would be going.

MEDEA
does it belong to you?

JASON

It was mine –

MEDEA

What happened to –

JASON
before I even met you.

MEDEA
half and half?

JASON

Obviously you can’t have –

MEDEA

I thought we were all –

JASON
half a table.

MEDEA

– for equality.

Pause.

You didn’t even bother to put the crap on the side. You just put it all on the floor.

JASON

Look, it’s perfectly reasonable –

MEDEA

The boys came back from school and found a kitchen –

JASON
for me to take one or two things.

MEDEA
with no table in it and crap all over the floor.

JASON

It’s actually important –

MEDEA

We agreed you wouldn’t denude the house.

JASON

– for them to have some things they recognise –

MEDEA

We agreed you wouldn’t denude the house and –

JASON
where I am now.

MEDEA
suddenly the boys have to eat their fucking dinner –

JASON

Oh, for Christ’s sake.

MEDEA

– off the floor like a pair of dogs.

Pause.

JASON

We’ve gone over –

MEDEA

No, actually, if they were dogs you might –

JASON
all this before.

MEDEA

– pay them some attention.

JASON

You make it absolutely –

MEDEA

Take them for the odd –

JASON

– impossible.

MEDEA

– walk now and then.

JASON

Impossible.

Pause.

MEDEA

I don’t know who you are.

JASON

I’m exactly who –

MEDEA

I’ve spent fifteen years living –

JASON

I’ve always been.

MEDEA

– with a complete stranger. (Pause.) You’ve taken away my history.

JASON

Your idea of –

MEDEA

Our whole past –

JASON

– history is just –

MEDEA

– has become a lie.

JASON

– a fantasy.

MEDEA

That’s what –

JASON

You don’t own –

MEDEA

– dictators do, isn’t it?

JASON

– the story.

MEDEA

They rewrite history so they can get their way.

JASON

I’ve got my own –

MEDEA

Everything becomes –

JASON

– truth.

MEDEA

– subjective. Then you can justify anything.

Pause.

JASON

I’ve fallen in love with someone else. That’s all.

MEDEA

What kind of love is it that needs the whole world to disappear before it can exist?

Pause.

That isn’t love. It’s genocide.

Pause.

JASON

Look, there’s something I need to talk to you about.

MEDEA

I’m so tired.

JASON

I need to talk to you about –

MEDEA

I need someone to just –

JASON

– the pearl choker.

MEDEA

– knock me out for a while.

JASON

My mother’s asked for her pearl choker to be returned.

MEDEA

Your mother?

JASON

It’s – she wants it back. It belonged to her –

MEDEA

Actually it belongs –

JASON

– grandmother.

MEDEA

– to me.

JASON

She feels it should stay in the family.

MEDEA

Your mother said that?

JASON

She feels it ought to return to the family.

MEDEA

Am I not part of the family now?

JASON

It’s just that it’s –

MEDEA

I’m her grandsons’ mother.

JASON

– part of our history.

MEDEA

Am I not family?

JASON

Look, I can’t speak for her. I said I felt sure you would –

MEDEA

She gave it to me.

JASON

– understand.

Pause.

MEDEA

Oh, I see what’s happened.

JASON

It’s not as if you ever –

MEDEA

I get it.

JASON

– wear it.

MEDEA

You want to give it to her, don’t you?

Pause.

Don’t you?

JASON

Well, she is going to be –

MEDEA

My God, you filthy –

JASON

– my wife.

MEDEA

– self-serving bastard.

JASON

This isn’t easy for me, you know. It’s a hard thing to have –

MEDEA

This isn’t even audacity. It’s a disease.

JASON

– to ask you.

MEDEA

Shamelessness.

JASON

Look, things are going to get –

MEDEA

Absolute shamelessness.

JASON

– pretty nasty if you –

MEDEA

Shame on you.

JASON

– carry on like this.

MEDEA

Shame on you.

They both slam down the phones.

SCENE 6

The sitting room. MEDEA sits at her desk writing. BOY TWO is building a tower with wooden blocks. BOY ONE is sitting aimlessly on the sofa.

B1

Can we put the TV on?

Pause.

Mum, can we put the TV on?

MEDEA

No.

B1

But –

MEDEA

I don’t want the TV on. I’ve got to work.

Pause.

B1

What are you doing?

MEDEA

I’m trying to write something.

B1

What are you trying to write?

MEDEA

I’m not sure yet.

B1

Oh.

Pause.

When will it be finished?

MEDEA

What?

B1

Will it be finished by six o’clock? Top Gear’s on at six o’clock.

Pause.

Dad says he’s going to get us iPhones.

Pause.

MEDEA

Does he?

B1

So we can keep in touch.

Pause.

He says we can go and get them this weekend.

Pause.

It’s so cool. I can’t wait.

Pause.

What are all these boxes for?

MEDEA

They’re for putting our things in.

B1

But how did they get here?

MEDEA

A man delivered them.

B1

Why did he?

MEDEA

Because we need them if we’re going to move to a different house.

B1

But I want to stay in this house.

MEDEA

I know.

B1

I don’t want to live in a different house.

MEDEA

I know.

B1

I hate moving. I don’t want to move.

Pause.

Why can’t we just stay here?

MEDEA

Because this house is too big for us.

B1

But I don’t want to live in a smaller house. Why can’t Dad come back and live here? Then the house would be the right size again.

Pause.

MEDEA

Because of me. Dad doesn’t want to live with me any more.

B1

Why not? Did you annoy him?

MEDEA

In a way.

B1

You shouldn’t have done that.

Pause.

I don’t want to live in a smaller house.

B2

Oh, shut up.

B1

Can’t we go and stay with Dad? Their house is really big. He says it’s even got a swimming pool.

B2

It’s not their house. It’s her house.

B1

Dad lives there too.

B2

It belongs to her.

B1

It’s really cool apparently. It’s much better than ours. It’s got a pool and everything.

B2

She wouldn’t let us swim in the pool. We might get the water dirty.

B1

Dad says we’ll have our own rooms there soon.

Pause.

She’s got this really cute little dog. Mum, have you seen her dog? It’s really cute.

B2

I bet the dog’s got its own room.

B1

It’s a really cute little dog. I wish we could have a dog.

Pause.

Mum, can we get a dog?

B2

I hate her dog.

B1

Can we?

B2

It’s so stupid it can’t even walk.

B1

You’re what’s stupid.

B2

All she cares about is her stupid dog.

B1

Dad says she just has to get used to us.

B2

She’ll never get used to you. That’d be like getting used to cancer.

B1 leaps to his feet and aims a kick at B2’s tower. They freeze like that while MEDEA speaks.

MEDEA

How long is a piece of string?
Fifteen years, in our case.
Time is like money: spend it and it’s gone.
He’d say I chose to spend it, of course.
That’s equality for you: a world without the need for honour.
Every man for himself!
My husband wants half of everything;
half a piece of string.
But half of something is sometimes nothing.
What’s half a picture, or half a car?
I said to him, how shall we divide the children?
Shall you do it, or shall I?
We’ll need a big knife,
and lots of mops for the blood.
And how shall we divide our history?
It’s hard to do it fairly –
shall you do it or shall I?
We were young when we married,
and mad with ambition:
other people’s marriages seemed like endings,
but ours was an opening, a setting sail.
We made love, war, conversation,
we made warmth, food, a home.
We made children, our children.
Who owns the story, the teller or the told?
I said, don’t ask who owns it – it can’t be separated.
The magic works through us together, I said.
But he was curious.
He wanted to know what he was.
Except that no one really wants to know that, do they?

B1 unfreezes and kicks down B2’s tower.

I used to have someone I could talk to.
I miss him.
I can’t bear it.
It hurts.

SCENE 7

MEDEA sits at her desk writing. A man wearing a business suit and a crown enters.

CREON

They told me I’d find you here. (Pause.) I said no, she’s a writer, she’s bound to be out observing things, you know, jotting stuff down, making notes on the species. But apparently not.

Pause.

Perhaps you’re the other kind. The kind that just makes it all up.

MEDEA (Typing.)

You mean a liar.

CREON

Is that what you’d call it? I had a more pleasant word in mind. What was it again?

MEDEA (Typing.)

Imagination.

CREON

Imagination, yes. Terrific stuff for keeping people quiet. I use it all the time.

MEDEA

What do you want?

CREON

In the sense of refreshments? Nothing at all. The body is a beggar – the less you give it, the less it pesters you. I don’t suppose you’re on top of the physical side of things yourself. Divorce is very ageing, you know. Women tend to lose weight – they get all excited by that, but it’s far too late. They’re mistaking death for youth.

Pause. He goes around looking in the cupboards.

Yes, imagination. I sense you despise it, but in fact you should use yours a little more. It’s full of sex, you know – in the abstract, obviously, but for a woman your age it’s fun, not to mention available. (Leafs through a pile of papers.) And it would certainly pay all these bills of yours. (Whistles.) I’m getting a strong impression of red. The colour of blood and panic. The colour of stop.

MEDEA (Typing.)

I can’t stop.

CREON (Holding up some unopened envelopes.)

May I? (He begins to tear them open.) You can always stop.
Want to know where most people go wrong? They take things too personally. They think the deities are sitting around discussing them; they think there’s some kind of plan they’re central to. Do you see where I’m going? In fact life is simple: annihilate or be annihilated.

Pause while he reads a letter.

Incidentally, you’re about to lose your license.

MEDEA

My license?

CREON

Your driver’s license. Yes, you can stop all right. Your time is up – all the signs are here. The trouble with women is they can’t accept that after a certain age they have no function. They want to conserve. They want gratitude. They want to sit on their laurels, receiving payback.

He sits on the edge of her desk.

There’s no such thing as justice. There’s only survival. The question is, how much do you want to survive?

MEDEA

On those terms, not at all.

CREON

See this? (He pulls up his shirt to reveal a scar.). When I was a boy my father made me cut hay from dawn to dusk with a scythe. I resented it. One day I was so bone tired that I didn’t put the blade away when I was done. I thought, to hell with it, I’ll do it tomorrow. Then later I had to come back outside on some other business. It was dark, and I walked straight into it. Cut myself in two from top to bottom. Carelessness…

MEDEA (Stops writing and turns to look at him.)

Why did you tell me that?

CREON

Call it a – heads up. You strike me as the type who’d prefer to jump, before she’s pushed. Besides, you’re bothering my little girl: she wants you out of her dreams. At her age, those dreams should be sweet.

Pause.

I’ll be honest, a woman like you scares me. All self-destructive people scare me. There’s no basis for negotiation. If I don’t hear the note of compromise I’m uneasy. I want to put you away. Just in case someone trips over you one of these days.

MEDEA turns away from him and continues writing. He sits on the edge of her desk and looks over her shoulder at what she’s writing.

You think you’re safe, but you’re not. People don’t like the sound you make. You tell them the opposite of what they want to hear. I was talking to your agent –

MEDEA (Turns sharply.)

My agent?

CREON

– the other day and he had to admit he agreed. Nice enough fellow, by the way, if a little spineless. He said, the trouble is she has no – what did he call it? – no –

MEDEA

What?

CREON

– no tact. I met him, incidentally, on business. I discovered I had a little publishing house in my portfolio that I’d entirely forgotten about. You’ve a contract there, but I’m afraid we can’t honour it.

MEDEA

You have to.

CREON

There’s no contract that can’t be broken. Take marriage – two people making binding promises while in a state of temporary insanity. Oh, it didn’t work out? Golly, that’s surprising! (Guffaws.)

He reaches his fingers towards her face then withdraws them.

Have you seen your face? It’s so…severe. You should be careful. You’ll wind up with all those little lines women get around their mouths. Ugh! My ex-wife has a mouth like a monkey’s rectum. She was angry too. Anger is so ugly in a woman.

He picks up the wine bottle and sniffs it.

No, a woman shouldn’t be sour. When they get to a certain age, they start to harden around you like concrete. Thing is, a man begins life imprisoned in a woman’s body. Believe me, he’ll never lose the urge to be free.

He puts the bottle down.

It’s safest to love children, is my advice. My daughter now, she’s as soft and fresh as milk. That purity will always belong to me.

MEDEA

I had a father once.

CREON

Did he want you?

MEDEA

My mother wouldn’t let him.

CREON

Oh, that’s perverse. A girl needs her father’s desire, else she can’t become a woman. But he was a yes-man, am I right? A sexual prawn. He chose her over you. He denied you, to keep the peace.

MEDEA

He didn’t know any better.

CREON

Don’t make excuses. He didn’t want you, so you thought you had to be like him instead. (Pause.) You know, after I was born, my mother had them take it out, the…apparatus. You might consider that yourself. Get that poison out of your system for good – you’d be neutralised, calmer, less tormented.

MEDEA

I don’t want to be neutralised.

CREON

Why not? At your age it’s so obviously a case of sour grapes. You have quite a reputation, you know.

MEDEA

For what?

CREON

For ‘telling it like it is’. (He makes exaggerated quote marks with his fingers.) That’s all right as far as it goes. There’s a place for honesty, just like there’s a place for a dog by the fire. But a dog’s no good if you haven’t tamed it. It might look tame, but if there’s one speck of wildness left in its heart then one day it might turn around and bite your hand off. You have to break it, break it right through its core and then rebuild it to look like what it was. You follow me?

MEDEA

Not really.

CREON

Oh. They told me you were intelligent.

MEDEA laughs.

You know, you look completely different when you smile. It lifts your face, especially in the cheeks. You could actually be a very attractive woman.

MEDEA

Well that’s what really matters.

CREON

There’s the sourness again. The problem with you is you don’t know how to love.

MEDEA

I’m sick of love.

CREON

You might find the world behaved differently if you loved. An unloving woman is a freak.

Pause.

You know, I think people might have got the wrong idea about you. It’s not for everyone, admittedly, but talking to you is like taking a cold bath – chilling but stimulating. Brr! I wouldn’t want to do it every day.

MEDEA

You don’t have to.

CREON

You’ll find your usual outlets won’t accept you – I had my people put the word out. It’s my little girl, you see – I can’t resist her.

MEDEA

I’m no threat to her.

CREON

The engagement will be all over the press in a couple of days. She’d rather you were hors de combat. You’re not exactly known for your reticence.

Pause.

I love her – excessively. Your husband has taken her from me. I allowed it – I’m her father, after all. She belongs to me, but I can never have her. I think about them together. I imagine her on top, riding him. I had to allow it so that I could imagine it.

He begins to wander away, off the stage.

He tired of you, but a girl never tires of her father. One day she’ll come back to me.

He leaves. Answerphone message.

JASON

It’s me. Look, I’m – ah – not going to be able to pick up the boys after all. I’ve got a – there’s a meeting I just can’t miss and – ah – well, I’m sure they’ll be very happy to be with you. Also I’ve been talking to the mediator again and he’s really, you know, keen for you to accept this privacy clause. And before you get angry again, let me just say that no one’s, you know, trying to silence you. It’s actually perfectly reasonable when you think about it. And I have to say, the mediator is absolutely on my side about this one. The thing is, other people are involved now and my – she doesn’t – they don’t choose to be exposed in that way. That kind of exposure could be very, very damaging for the family and it’s – it’s a worry for them. I mean, I’ve told them, you know, there’s absolutely no chance of that happening – I mean, it’s not like you’re, you know, a big name, is it? I mean, you don’t have that kind of power. But they don’t want to take the risk. So I’ve got to protect their – ah – our position. I’d be stupid not to. Ah – anyway, I have to go. You’ve got forty-eight hours to return the forms, all right? Call me if there’s anything you don’t understand.

MEDEA

Action: a thing that takes longer to say than to do.
Reaction: the other way around.
The women talk and talk and talk.
It buys them a few scraps from the male table.
Go on, help yourselves, feel free!
Talk your little heads off, write your little hearts out.
Bring another wheelbarrow-load for the bonfire.
Just so long as it doesn’t change anything.

I want to smash a wall to see the hole my fist punched through it.
I want to throw something and watch it break.
I want to have an effect.

(Shouts.) It’s not fair!

SCENE 8

NURSE and TUTOR are sitting on the sofa. NURSE has her handbag in her lap. BOY 1 and BOY 2 are playing on the floor.

NURSE

I saw Charlotte Smith in town today. She was at school with you – do you remember? Charlotte Jones, I should call her now. She married that consultant up at the hospital. Three boys – lovely family. They were all just off skiing for half-term – she was buying a few last minute bits and pieces. She asked after you. Said she’d once seen a play of yours; she couldn’t remember the title. She’s rushed off her feet with those three boys, so I don’t expect she has much time for going to the theatre. What was the word she used? Uncompromising. She said your writing was uncompromising. Or was it uncomfortable?

Pause.

Anyway, she said you must be very…clever. She gave up work, of course, when the children were born. She said it was amazing you found the time. They’re off skiing, in any case.

B1

We go skiing.

NURSE

You used to go skiing.

B1

We go skiing every year.

NURSE

I don’t think you’re going this year.

B1

My dad says he might take us. He says he probably will.

NURSE

Well, let’s see whether he does, shall we, before we start talking about it.

Pause.

TUTOR

I paid the speeding fine.

MEDEA

What?

TUTOR

On your car.

NURSE

It must cost you a fortune to run that car.

TUTOR

It was just sitting around so I paid it.

NURSE

Do you really think you need a car now?

Pause.

I mean, it’s not as if you’re going anywhere.

The CLEANER appears and begins mopping the floor.

CLEANER

For woman is no such thing as fair. Man come to my house yesterday, he tell me I got to leave this place. I say, say who? He say, say the judge. I say, what I ever done to him? He say, it ain’t what you do, it what you are. I say, what I am? I just my husband’ leftovers.

The CLEANER gets out the hoover.

You want I do this now or some other time?

She starts to hoover noisily.

I say, if he know what I am, maybe he can tell me some time. Married people like those Siamese twins. You can’t separate. The doctor try to cut them in half and look what happen – always one die. I know, I was the one died. Same time my other half alive and well and driving to the beach with some girl with big papayas.

I say my mother once, mama, remember how you used to undo all the wool in my old sweater then knit me new sweater from the same piece – can’t you do that for my life too? She say those are bad thoughts. She say, what, you want me to undo your son?

She say, trouble with you Marta, you think words is worth something. But words ain’t worth a thing. Words is just women’s money, that’s all. Only thing it buys you is scraps from the man’s table.

SCENE 9

The sitting room. JASON and MEDEA talk to one another on their phones.

JASON

What have you done?

MEDEA

What?

JASON

You’ve fucking –

MEDEA

Nothing.

JASON
stalled the whole –

MEDEA

I haven’t done –

JASON
fucking process!

MEDEA

– anything!

Pause.

JASON

I’ve just had the estate agent on the phone. He says –

MEDEA

I’m not ready.

JASON

– you’ve taken the fucking house –

MEDEA

I’m not ready to leave.

JASON

– off the market.

MEDEA

We need to stay here. It’s our home.

JASON

Look, if you’re talking about the boys –

MEDEA

Who else would I be –

JASON

– then you’re wrong.

MEDEA

– talking about?

JASON

I’ve spoken to them. They agreed –

MEDEA

What kind of conversation –

JASON

– it made sense.

MEDEA

– was that exactly?

Pause.

Did you ask them –

JASON

We talked about it –

MEDEA

– if they wanted some Smarties –

JASON

– the other day.

MEDEA

– and then wait for them to nod their heads?

JASON

They were surprisingly –

MEDEA

Look boys, you said yes, you can’t –

JASON

– positive about the idea.

MEDEA

– take it back now!

Pause.

Is that how you did it?

JASON

You know what kids are like. They’re –

MEDEA

Do I?

JASON

– excited by anything –

MEDEA

Is that what –

JASON

– new.

MEDEA

– people say? Oh her, yes, she knows what kids are like, they’re just mini consumers aren’t they, and if they’re upset you just shove some fucking –

JASON

Oh, not –

MEDEA

Smarties in their mouths.

JASON

– this again.

Pause.

Look, to be perfectly honest, I need the money.

MEDEA

Do you?

JASON

Yes.

MEDEA

I thought she was –

JASON

She doesn’t understand –

MEDEA

– some kind of –

JASON

– about money. She expects –

MEDEA

– princess in a castle.

JASON

– to be paid for.

Pause.

She’s that kind of woman.

MEDEA

The kind that expects to be paid for.

Pause.

JASON

Look, I haven’t told you this –

MEDEA

Are you some sort of expert now?

JASON

– but…what’s that?

MEDEA

I’m asking if you’re some sort of expert now.

JASON

In what?

MEDEA

In varieties of woman.

JASON

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Look, this isn’t public knowledge yet, but I may be about to get –

MEDEA

Get what?

JASON

– a role. A big one. It’s still being nailed down but – the thing is, you and the boys won’t need to worry. About money.

This changes everything. But right now I’ve got to be seen to be – it’s a delicate situation. I’ve got to be seen to be autonomous.

MEDEA

Just seen to be.

JASON

It’s a delicate situation. Her father –

MEDEA

While in fact your own –

JASON

– wants absolute –

MEDEA

– children are being screwed –

JASON

– discretion as far as the –

MEDEA

– to create that illusion.

JASON

– personal connection goes.

Pause.

MEDEA

Funny kind of autonomy that is.

JASON

Look, the house needs to be sold. Frankly it’ll be sold whether you agree or not. The judge has made that absolutely clear. I’m entitled to –

MEDEA

You’re entitled to live –

JASON

– fifty per cent of –

MEDEA

– like the rat you are –

JASON

– our joint assets.

MEDEA

– in some sewer with your lady rat.

Pause.

JASON

Look, all that will happen is that this goes back to the court. It’ll be horrible for the children –

MEDEA

Oh, them again.

JASON

– and it’ll cost –

MEDEA

You’re really getting the hang of –

JASON

– a bloody fortune. You can put it on your fucking credit card!

MEDEA

– this children thing.

Pause.

Aren’t you? Aren’t you?

Phone goes dead.

You can’t leave me: I’m part of what you are.

You’d only be leaving yourself,
like that man who cut his own arm off to be free.

It’ll hurt, my friend, and I’m not sure you’re brave enough.

I can unmake you the same way I made you.

I write the story, remember?

She throws down her phone.

B1

Who were you talking to? Were you talking to Dad?

MEDEA

Just a friend.

B1

But were you talking to Dad?

MEDEA

I was talking to a friend.

B1

Why were you shouting?

MEDEA

It was just a game, that’s all. We were pretending.

B2

I’ve taken your queen.

B1

What?

B2

It wasn’t very difficult.

B1

You could have told me you were going to do that.

B2

She was just sitting there on her own. You didn’t even bother to defend her.

B1

But you could have warned me!

B2

What would be the point of that? It’s a game.

B1 lunges forward and overturns chess board.

MEDEA

Pause.

The more I speak, the less I am heard.
In love there is no need for speech,
but tear it and the words come out like stuffing,
two people spewing out language
until it seems that’s all we’re made of.
The words come out and I shrink.
I feel smaller than my own children.
My body has become innocent of them.
I used to protect them: now it’s they who protect me.
Because they think I’m real.
I have to be, for their sake.
When I look at them I see – what?
Two lives in reverse.
Two abortions.
What are they without him?
He changed his mind but they’re still here, occupying space.
They are – trash.

Pause. Throws manuscript in the bin beside her desk.

She takes the manuscript out of the bin.

Let the river flow uphill for a change. Let order become disorder.
Call it a magic trick –
I’ll make something happen using only words.

SCENE 10

The sitting room. The pile of boxes is now enormous.

AEGEUS

You’ve changed.

MEDEA

Have I?

AEGEUS

‘Thinner you grow, less knowable, finer.’ That’s Celan, incidentally. He’s so good on the dark patches.

Pause.

No kids?

MEDEA

They go to school.

AEGEUS

Oh of course. I forgot people still do that. Is this moving in, or moving out?

MEDEA

Out.

AEGEUS

But moving up at least, I hope.

MEDEA shakes her head slowly.

MEDEA

He got a court order. We have to go.

AEGEUS

What’s wrong with your lawyer? You’re the mother, for heaven’s sake.

MEDEA

I think I’m the wrong kind.

Pause.

He says he needs the money.

AEGEUS

From what I hear, his needs are about to be assuaged. This will be quite a career move, you know, if he can pull it off. It’s huge, actually – it puts him in a whole different league.

MEDEA puts her head in her hands. AEGEUS tries to comfort her.

I know, it doesn’t seem right. Can’t you let him go? Can’t you just – despise him for it?

MEDEA shakes her head.

Maybe you thought too highly of him. Maybe he just can’t help himself.

MEDEA

Oh, he can.

AEGEUS

When I think back to the old days – I mean, I make no secret of the fact that I’ve sold out, but the two of you always had so much integrity. Everything you did was – art. I admit it, I’m surprised. You were the last people – really, the last people – I expected this to happen to. And to happen in such a sordid way – I know it must sound naive, but I honestly saw you as soulmates. You were such a – such a match. I remember, years ago, watching you play each other at chess and thinking, Christ, can this really be possible, that these two people get to have sex with each other too? To have, you know, all of it? You were the example I gave to all my doubting friends. You even made having kids look interesting.

Pause.

On the flight over I was sitting right across the aisle from this woman and her baby. You know Jorge wants to do this whole surrogacy thing? So now I’m looking at babies, you know, the way you suddenly start looking at cars when you’re thinking of buying one. Though to be honest I’m not really a believer yet. I’ve been in sort of a silent tailspin over this kids thing. It’s like, my God, Invasion of the Body Snatchers – the whole world’s been taken over by aliens, and only me and Jorge are left. And then suddenly I look at Jorge ogling babies and I realise he’s been taken over by aliens too, and now there’s only me! Anyhow, this baby on the flight was like a little owl, all silent and staring. And the mother was positively iconic. She was the madonna – she had this amazing bone structure, and her eyes were this translucent, almost empty blue, and she was so sort of devotional and set apart. She kept getting up to tend to the baby, very calm and unhurried, and every time she bent over it the back of her shirt would ride up a tiny bit and you’d see this little bit of skin through the gap. I kept looking at this pale, tender strip of skin that was constantly being exposed. It was the most beautiful thing. And then on the other side of me was this sweaty middle-aged bond trader type, chugging Johnnie Walker non-stop all the way from JFK to Heathrow and reading Golfing Monthly from cover to cover. Twice.

Pause.

Manhood is such a – dead end. It’s better to be you, despite everything. It’s women who own the truth. And you’ve still got the kids – the kids are your talisman. He’ll respect that at least.

MEDEA

At the court hearing, he was so guilt-stricken about turning them out of their own home that even the judge felt sorry for him.
It was the performance of his career.

Pause.

They tried to make me sign a privacy clause.

AEGEUS

And did you?

MEDEA

Of course not. I said they might as well execute me.

Pause.

AEGEUS

I wish I had your courage. You know I’m meant to be writing this – well, this little novel.

MEDEA

You’ve always wanted that.

AEGEUS

I can’t say it to Jorge obviously, but this is my actual baby. This is the thing I want for my own. I have done for years. But the truth is, I can’t write it. My office is so full of notes and diagrams and chapter plans it looks like CIA headquarters. Even my secretary knows the plot inside out. But I can’t write a line. I sit down to start and I feel so…naked.

Pause.

I had a meeting with the publishers this morning.

MEDEA

What did they say?

AEGEUS

Well they said, you know – where is it? They’ve arranged the public appearances, the festivals, they’ve even started massaging the reviewers – they said, frankly, it doesn’t even have to be all that good, with a name like yours it’ll sell all by itself. And I said look guys, don’t uncork the champagne just yet, and they said why not, and I’ll be honest with you, I – well I lied and told them they’d have it by the end of the month. Someone in my position, lying like a schoolboy who hasn’t done his homework – it’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad. But it’s the child of my heart. I find I can’t let it go. I’ve even thought of –

MEDEA

Of what?

AEGEUS

I know it sounds ridiculous, but – of paying someone else to write it. God, listen to me! Male vanity obviously comes in all shapes and sizes.

Pause.

The problem is, the sort of person I’d choose would have far too much integrity to do it.

Pause.

MEDEA

I will.

AEGEUS

What’s that?

MEDEA

I’ll write it.

Pause.

AEGEUS

My God, are you serious?

MEDEA

Yes.

AEGEUS

It would have to be absolutely –

MEDEA

Confidential, I know. But if you give me your notes I can do it.

AEGEUS

I have no doubt at all you can do it. You’re – well, you’re an artist. Believe me, it’s my fantasy come true.

MEDEA

I’d want something in return, though.

Pause.

AEGEUS

Well obviously, we’d talk about the money –

MEDEA

I don’t want money.

Pause.

I want you to look at a script.

AEGEUS

Who’s the writer?

MEDEA

Me. I want you to get it made.

AEGEUS (Laughs.)

If only it were that simple!

MEDEA

It can be when it needs to be.

AEGEUS

Yes, but –

MEDEA

I want you to make my script.

AEGEUS

– the kinds of things I do are just – well, they’re trash really –

MEDEA

Your novel in exchange for my script.

AEGEUS

– just very popular shows. And like I said, you’re an artist.

MEDEA

This is different.

AEGEUS

In what way?

MEDEA

In the right way. For you.

AEGEUS

Well, I’d have to be –

MEDEA

I want you to promise.

AEGEUS

– the judge of that, of course.

MEDEA

I want you to promise.

Pause.

AEGEUS

I need to be – careful. (Laughs awkwardly.) Look, I’m not condoning what he’s done, far from it. But I’d be crossing into enemy territory here. I wouldn’t like to be persona non grata in those well-connected quarters.

MEDEA

You won’t be.

AEGEUS

I’m really not sure –

MEDEA

I need it.

AEGEUS

– this is wise.

MEDEA

I need it. (Pause.) Or I don’t know what I’ll do.

AEGEUS

I’d be taking –

MEDEA

You’ll get your book.

AEGEUS

– a risk.

MEDEA

You’ll get –

AEGEUS

I mean, this is how people –

MEDEA

– your book.

AEGEUS

– destroy themselves, through –

MEDEA

In one –

AEGEUS

– vanity.

MEDEA
month.

Pause.

But you have to promise.

Pause.

Promise.

Pause.

Promise.

AEGEUS

I – okay – I promise.

MEDEA (Offering him paper and a pen.)

Write it.

AEGEUS

There’s really no need –

MEDEA

I want it in writing.

AEGEUS visibly struggles but takes the pen and writes. He gets up slowly and as he leaves the room grows gradually darker, as if night is falling.

MEDEA sits in the semi-darkness.

Then she rises, opens a cupboard and takes out a bottle of whisky and a bottle of pills. She opens the pill bottle and pours out a big handful and crams them in her mouth, the takes a long swig of whisky, then spits it all out and throws the whisky bottle against the wall.

SCENE 11

The sitting room has gone. Instead there is a barren landscape with one or two large boulders in it, and MEDEA’s desk. MEDEA sits typing at the desk. She stops typing and looks up.

MEDEA

What have you come here for?
Why are you watching me?
Go on, have a good look – help yourselves, feel free!

Pause.

I asked him, when our children were born, if I had changed.
He admitted I was different, slacker, he said,
looser, and I thanked him for his honesty.
He said, sometimes I feel you might swallow me whole.
He said, things aren’t the same, are they,
now that the children are here.
It’s like we’re sitting in the audience
of our own life, he said.
These days I clench my cunt and smile,
imagining her young skin, her taut waist,
her long hair like a soft waterfall.
It’s almost as if I want her myself.
It’s almost as if I created her,
drew her with the fine, fine nib of jealousy.
Is it them I want to obliterate, or me?
The pain only exists because I exist to feel it.
But I would rather be something than nothing.
Pain is strong, but something else is stronger.
I feel it, your unhonoured truth,
like a boulder on my back.
It gives you a thrill to watch me suffer.
The less I pretend the more of a kick you get.
I enact what you disown about yourselves.
I take the punishment you’ve avoided.
(She sits back down at her desk and resumes her typing.)
That’s why you watch me.
That’s why you’re here.

Lights out. Almost immediately, lights on again. JASON is now sitting on one of the boulders. MEDEA remains typing at her desk.

JASON

The children –

MEDEA (Still typing, not looking up.)

Have you actually ever –

JASON

– are worried about you.

MEDEA

– considered the children?

JASON

They say you’re behaving strangely.

Pause.

MEDEA

Did they write to you?

JASON

Excuse me?

MEDEA

Did they write to you, or did they let you know that by telepathy?

JASON

It’s a shame there’s had to be –

MEDEA

What now?

JASON

– such unpleasantness. (Pause.) Your anger –

MEDEA

Oh, my anger.

JASON

– has made it virtually impossible –

MEDEA

That’s the problem, is it?

JASON

– to go about things –

MEDEA

It’s me, is it?

JASON

– in a civilised way.

Pause.

You don’t realise –

MEDEA

What don’t I –

JASON

– how extraordinary your –

MEDEA

– realise?

JASON

– anger is. Other people –

MEDEA

Oh, other people, we –

JASON

– wouldn’t put up –

MEDEA

– like them don’t we, they always take –

JASON

– with it.

MEDEA

– your side.

JASON

I’ve protected you from their judgement. Now I think maybe I shouldn’t have.

Pause.

MEDEA

What people?

JASON

What?

MEDEA

What people?

Pause. MEDEA keeps writing.

JASON

I got so sick of the endless bloody conflict. Always having to find new friends because you’d fallen out with the ones we had. Always moving because you decided you didn’t like where we were.

MEDEA

That’s today’s, is it?

JASON

Today’s what?

MEDEA

Theory.

Pause.

JASON

Why did everything have to be so bloody controversial?

MEDEA

I wanted honesty.

JASON

Your honesty made me a fucking exile.

MEDEA

Our life was –

JASON

Our life was –

MEDEA
about truth.

JASON
an ordeal.

MEDEA stops typing and looks at him.

MEDEA

Was it?

Pause.

JASON

Hard as it might be to believe, I still care –

MEDEA

Oh –

JASON

– about you.

MEDEA

– really?

JASON

It hurts me to see you getting hurt.

MEDEA laughs.

This could all have been very different. But it’s as if you’re blind – you feel but you can’t see. So you break things.

MEDEA

Me?

JASON

Look what happens when I’m not –

MEDEA

I do?

JASON

– protecting you. You start destroying things.

Pause.

MEDEA

I’ll destroy you.

JASON

What?

MEDEA

I said I’ll destroy you.

JASON

You can’t. I’m beyond you now.

Pause.

I just want what’s best –

MEDEA

You want.

JASON

– for you and the boys.

MEDEA

You want.

Pause.

JASON

God, you women. You pick it to the bones, don’t you, the fucking corpse.

Pause.

I just want something clean.

Pause.

I want to be free.

MEDEA

You can’t be.

JASON

Why not? Why –

MEDEA

You’re not –

JASON

– not?

MEDEA

– free. You have two –

JASON

Oh, the children –

MEDEA

– children.

JASON

– are fine. They’re incredibly –

MEDEA

They’re not –

JASON

– resilient. They’re finding this –

MEDEA

– fine.

JASON

– easier than you are.

Pause.

Most of their friends have divorced parents. It would be stranger for them if we stayed together.

MEDEA

There speaks the cynicism of our times.

Pause.

You can’t just send them –

JASON

Look, I need to put myself –

MEDEA

– back to the shop.

JASON

– first for –

MEDEA

I’m not a shop.

JASON

– a while.

MEDEA

I’m not a shop.

Pause.

You deformed me. You came inside me –

JASON

What exactly are you –

MEDEA

– and you grew there.

JASON

– accusing me of?

MEDEA

Twice.

JASON

It was entirely –

MEDEA

While you stayed –

JASON

– your choice to –

MEDEA

– exactly the same.

JASON

– have children.

MEDEA

You touched everything. You got into everything. Even my words have your finger marks on.

JASON

Look, I feel I’ve done all I can to make this all right for you. It’s in my interests, for Christ’s sake. It’s in my interests for you to be all right. Can’t you see that?

Pause.

MEDEA

But I’m not all right.

Pause.

JASON

I hate to say it, but you’re your own worst enemy. You play the victim. But you’re not a victim, you’re the – the opposite.

MEDEA

I don’t know what –

JASON

All I’m saying is that –

MEDEA

– I am. I can’t remember –

JASON
there comes a point where you have to accept that –

MEDEA

– what I was before –

JASON
you bring things on yourself.

MEDEA

– you came inside me.

JASON

Look, you’re not like other people.

MEDEA

You’re inside the children too.

JASON

You don’t see things the way everyone else does.

MEDEA

You own fifty per cent.

JASON

At the moment that’s a losing hand –

MEDEA

Can I just love my half, please?

JASON

– but if you exercised some self-control it could become a kind of strength.

Long pause.

MEDEA

It’s funny the way, when you shaft people, you still want them to like you afterwards. Did they teach you that at your private school?

JASON

Oh, shut up. God, even the sound of your voice –

MEDEA

You think you can –

JASON
makes me sick.

MEDEA

– silence me.

JASON (Laughs.)

If that was true I’d be doing –

MEDEA

You act like I’m nothing.

JASON

– everyone a fucking favour.

MEDEA

You act like it was nothing, what I did.

JASON

What did you do?

MEDEA

But it’s you that’s nothing.

JASON

Come to think of it, what did you actually do?

MEDEA

I made you what you are.

JASON

I made –

MEDEA (Laughs.)

You wouldn’t have been –

JASON
myself.

MEDEA
capable of leaving me –

JASON

Jesus, your arrogance.

MEDEA
if I hadn’t tarted up your brain.

JASON

You women really have –

MEDEA

You didn’t even know how to –

JASON
a God complex.

MEDEA
fuck a woman –

JASON

You think you’re –

MEDEA
until I taught you.

JASON
the creators.

MEDEA

I rather regret that now.

JASON

But you’re just the vessel. You don’t make anything.

MEDEA

I made our children.

JASON

You wanted them!

Pause.

MEDEA

Didn’t you?

JASON

Of course I wanted them. All I’m saying –

MEDEA

Didn’t you want them?

JASON
is that you made –

MEDEA

Didn’t you?

JASON
a free choice. To be perfectly honest –

MEDEA

Go on.

JASON

I mean, you know I love the boys, but –

MEDEA

Go on.

JASON

– no, it wasn’t essential for me. Not the way it was for you. I mean, obviously I’m glad we did but I’m not sure I’d have actually –

MEDEA

Say it.

JASON

– chosen it.

Pause.

To be perfectly frank, I think a lot of men feel that way. They just don’t admit it.

MEDEA

But you do.

JASON

I do what?

MEDEA

Admit it.

JASON

I’m being honest.

MEDEA

That’s not –

JASON

I thought you were all –

MEDEA

– honesty.

JASON

– for honesty. Or is it only you that’s allowed to be honest?

MEDEA (Shouts.)

That’s not honesty!

JASON (Raising his hands.)

Look, no one can say I haven’t tried. But I can’t deal with this any more. From now on, you’re on your own.

Pause.

MEDEA

I think I always was.

JASON

If that’s true, then it’s because you deserved to be.

They stare at each other.

MEDEA

I can’t save them, because I can’t ever have them whole. You couldn’t even leave me that.

They walk in separate directions off the stage.

SCENE 13

The WOMEN are waiting outside the school gate.

W1

I don’t feel like it today.

W2

I know what you mean.

W1

I feel like I can’t be bothered.

W2

I know what you mean.

W1

You know how sometimes you think, you know –

W2

I know.

W1

– sod all this, I just want –

W2

I know.

W1

– to have some fucking fun.

Pause.

W3

John’s in Paris this week.

W1

I mean, I love the kids –

W4

Is he?

W1
you know I –

W2

Oh, I know.

W1

– do, I mean we all –

W3

For work.

W1

– love our kids –

W2

Exactly.

W1

– don’t we?

Pause.

W3

He says the women are amazing.

W4

Where?

W3

In Paris.

Pause.

As in, you know, beautiful. He says he’s never seen such beautiful women.

Pause.

W1

But sometimes you just want –

W2

I know what –

W1

– some glamour.

W2

– you mean.

W1

You want someone to just –

W2

Exactly.

W1

– fuck you over the –

W2

I know.

W1

– fucking kitchen table.

Pause.

Do you know what I mean?

Pause.

W3

It’s something to do with their mouths, apparently.

MEDEA enters and stands at a short distance. They look at her.

W1

Mind you, things could be worse.

W2

Exactly.

W1

Things could definitely be worse.

W2

Exactly.

W1

Imagine being stuck with it all on your own.

W2

I know.

W1

It’s not fair, is it?

W2

I know.

W1

I mean, the facts speak for themselves, don’t they?

W2

Exactly.

W1

I mean, you’ve got to ask yourself – how do they get away with it?

Pause.

Don’t you?

Pause.

W2

How does who?

Pause.

W1

How do men.

W2

Oh, right. Yes exactly.

W4

She looks so –

W1

Doesn’t she?

W4

– so sad.

W1

Doesn’t she?

W5

She looks frightening.

W1

Doesn’t she?

W3

It’s the kids you’ve got to worry about.

W4

Just so –

W3

I mean, is anyone monitoring this situation?

W4

– sad.

W3

I mean, she wasn’t the most normal mother in the first place.

Pause.

Was she?

W5

Archie said something the other day.

W3

Did he?

W5

The other evening, in the bath. I saw this thing on his arm and I said –

W3

What sort –

W5

– you know, what’s that and he said –

W3

– of thing?

W5

– a certain person bit me.

Pause.

W3

That’s a bit much.

W5

I thought, you know –

W3

That’s a bit –

W5

– I know they’re having a hard time and everything but –

W3

– much, isn’t it?

W5

– there’s got to be, you know, a limit. I mean,

W3

Did you –

W5

Just because her kids are suffering doesn’t mean –

W3

– report it?

W5

– our kids should suffer too, does it?

Pause.

I mean, whatever’s happening in our personal lives, we’ve got to control our kids, haven’t we?

Pause.

W1

To be honest, I’d rather be dead.

W2

I know.

W1

I’d rather be cleaning toilets in Siberia.

W2

I know.

W1

Anything but that.

W2

But what?

W1

Being stuck with it.

W2

Oh, I know.

W1

On my own.

Pause.

W4

Weren’t you offended?

W3

What?

W4

When your husband said that.

W3

Said what?

W4

About Paris. Weren’t you offended?

W3

Not really.

W4

I mean, if my husband rang me up from a business trip and said that, I’d be really offended.

W3

He was only being honest.

W4

I mean, he’s basically telling you that he’s looking at other women.

W3

They all do that.

W4

And that they’re more attractive than you are.

W3

That’s what men do.

W4

I mean, you’re stuck at home with the kids.

W3

They just don’t admit it.

W4

And he’s in Paris staring at women’s mouths.

W3

I’d rather he admitted it.

W4

Did you really not mind?

W3

Not really.

W4

Well I must be different then.

W3

I suppose so.

W4

I must be more sensitive.

W3

I suppose so.

W4

I feel upset just thinking about it.

W3

That’s a shame.

W4

Men are so – horrible.

SCENE 14

MEDEA and the two BOYS in the boulder landscape. She sits writing. The WOMEN stand like trees around the stage.

B1

What’s a delinquent?

Pause.

Mum, what does it mean to be a delinquent?

MEDEA

Why do you ask?

B1

That’s what Grandma says I’m going to be when I grow up. She says it’s because I come from a broken home.

Pause.

What’s a broken home?

MEDEA

A home that’s been divided into two homes.

B2

There’s no such thing. There can only be one home. If you have two homes then you have no home.

Pause.

B1

How long are we staying here?

MEDEA

I don’t know.

B1

Can’t we go back to our house?

MEDEA

Our house has been sold.

B1

But can’t we get it back?

MEDEA

It was too big for us.

A MAN in a suit walks across the stage and stops when he reaches them.

MAN

Excuse me, can’t you see I’m trying to pass?

They get out of the way and the MAN walks on.

B2 (Looking at his phone.)

Dad says he won’t be here this weekend, by the way.

B1

But we’re meant to be going there.

B2

Well he says he won’t be here.

Pause.

He says he’s going to Paris.

B1

He’s taking us to see Arsenal this weekend.

B2

He can’t take us to see Arsenal if he’s in Paris.

B1

Mum, is Dad taking us to see Arsenal this weekend?

B2

He’s probably going with her.

B1

Mum, is he?

B2

She probably said, We can’t take that horrid little boy to Paris – he’ll get the Eiffel Tower dirty!

B1

Mum?

The WOMEN start to gather around MEDEA.

Mum?

MEDEA

Once I was driving on a road in the mountains.

W1

What on earth were you doing there?

MEDEA

I was going somewhere in my car.

W2

Where were you going?

MEDEA

I don’t remember. But I remember wanting to get there.

W3

On your own – that was brave!

MEDEA

It was a very winding road but I took the bends well. I felt masterful.

W4

People are wrong about women drivers, you know.

MEDEA

The hills and valleys sped by. I felt free. I thought that I was free. (Pause.) Then something happened. A strange noise started.

W5

Something was wrong with the engine?

MEDEA

The car started to lose power.

W1

That’s my worst nightmare!

MEDEA

At first I refused to believe it. But the hills and valleys began to pass more slowly. They began to come into focus around me.

W2

You were breaking down.

MEDEA

I began to see how barren and wild they were, how empty.

W3

What did you do?

MEDEA

I pressed the accelerator harder and harder. But there was nothing there any more.

W4

I never drive anywhere alone, especially at night.

MEDEA

The car went slower and slower.

W5

You never know what might happen, do you?

MEDEA

Then at last it stopped.

W1

You’re putting all your faith in a machine.

MEDEA

I sat there in the silence, listening to the wind and the last calls of the birds.

W2

And machines can go wrong.

MEDEA

It was as if now that the noise and motion had stopped I could finally see and hear and feel.

W3

The thing is, you don’t actually know how it works.

MEDEA

I felt alive, as if though I had never been alive before.

W4

You don’t understand the mechanics, do you?

MEDEA

I watched the sun setting over the hills.

W5

You tend to leave all that to your husband.

MEDEA

I felt – hope.

W1

It’s a bit silly, isn’t it, when you start to think about it.

Pause.

MEDEA

And in that same moment, I realised darkness was coming.

W2

And you were alone.

MEDEA

Darkness.

W3

You were a long way from home.

MEDEA

Darkness.

W4

You hadn’t thought to bring your coat.

MEDEA

Darkness.

W5

You didn’t even have a map.

MEDEA

Darkness.

W1

The children would start to wonder where you were.

MEDEA

Darkness

Pause.

MEDEA

Darkness.

SCENE 15

The BOYS are running round and round through the trees, with MEDEA sitting writing in the middle. They run round and round her and she ignores them. Then JASON and GLAUCE and dog join in, running round and round her. She ignores them and keeps writing, beginning to laugh at what she’s writing. She laughs and laughs, until the effect is rather demoniacal.

SCENE 16

JASON and MEDEA in the boulder landscape. MEDEA isn’t writing. There’s a postbox at the back of the stage.

JASON

I know it’s only for one night, but I’m seeing it as pretty positive.

MEDEA

It’s a start, isn’t it?

JASON

They need to understand, though. The house isn’t set up for kids. They’ll need to be on their best behaviour. No shoes inside, that kind of thing.

MEDEA

They’ll get used to it. Children are so adaptable.

JASON

I admit it, she’s young. She struggles with the whole idea of children. She’s not interested in being anybody’s mother.

MEDEA

Well, obviously not yet, but –

JASON

Well I’m not saying that isn’t a possibility, but it wouldn’t be my choice. I’m happy with the children I’ve got. And now that things are getting so big, I want to focus on my career. But if the boys had a little sister one of these days – well, that might not be such a bad thing. It might actually bring her closer to them. And you can’t deny a woman the right to her own baby.

Pause.

Look, you should be trying to find someone yourself. You’re still an attractive woman.

MEDEA

Still?

JASON

For your age, yes. You should look on the internet. That’s how everyone does it these days.

His phone pings and he reads it then texts a reply.

How’s the writing going?

MEDEA

Oh, you know, fine. To be honest there isn’t much time for it, now that I’m a full time mum.

His phone pings again and he reads it.

JASON (Distracted.)

Ah – yes exactly. I think you’ve really got to make a decision to move on. You’ll find you’re a lot happier when you do.

Pause.

All those years we spent together – there were some good times, I do admit that, but it was always such a – such a slog. We worked and worked to get somewhere – we were like two people roped together, climbing a mountain. And now we’ve reached the top and we can finally see the whole world spread out in front of us. We don’t need each other any more. We can cut the rope.

Pause.

This is about freedom.

Pause.

We need to give each other our freedom back.

MEDEA

I’m going to let her have it. The choker. I’ve decided. The boys can bring it when they come.

JASON

Oh good. That’s wonderful news.

His phone pings again and he looks at it.

I have to go. Look, what I’m saying is, bear with her. At the moment the children are a problem for her. She’s just not ready – she’s young and she’s beautiful and she wants to have fun. And I don’t want to lose her, for all sorts of reasons. In any case, they ought to be with you. You’re their – their mother. It’s what they want. And like I said, I’m going to put myself first for a while. I think it will be better for all of us in the end if I do.

He touches her face and she flinches.

It’s really good to see you so calm. I’m starting to feel the storm is over.

He gets up and leaves. MEDEA crosses to her desk and opens the drawer. She takes out a manuscript and puts it in an envelope and addresses it. Then she takes out another manuscript and does the same thing.

MEDEA

Once I had a little dome made of silvered glass.
My father brought it back from Venice.
Inside the dome was a tiny city
with gondolas that bobbed on painted waves
and miniature bells in miniature towers
and little pink palaces, and silver canals.
I kept it on my mantelpiece.
I loved it more than anything.
When you shook it, snow fell on the tiny city
and the little dome became a world of whirling white.
It was so beautiful I wanted to enter it,
to pass through the glass and live in its reality
and walk beside the canals, and feel the snow falling on my face.
One day I broke it.
I couldn’t tolerate its sealed perfection.
It hurt me to love it, when I was outside of it.
I wanted to get inside.
So I smashed the glass barrier.
All the liquid came out, and the plastic pieces of snow,
and the magic of the tiny city.

Pause.

It didn’t hurt to love it any more.

Then she picks up the envelopes and carries them to the postbox. The first one goes in easily and tries to put the second one in. It’s too big. She shoves and shoves and struggles. The postbox shakes and falls on its side. She punches it repeatedly, shoving the envelope in. The stage begins to grow dark. Finally she succeeds in shoving it in and she collapses, exhausted. The stage is now her ‘dream’ landscape – she rises and moves in a dreamlike fashion. There are two cardboard boxes in one part of the stage, and NURSE and TUTOR sitting at their table in another. The WOMEN stand here and there holding pots and pans. MEDEA tries to communicate with NURSE and TUTOR but can’t reach them. Then she turns and sees the boxes, which start to rock. JASON and GLAUCE enter: GLAUCE is wearing the pearl choker. They begin to kiss and fondle one another while MEDEA watches. She becomes visibly distressed. The boxes rock harder. The WOMEN start to bang their pots and pans together. MEDEA approaches JASON and GLAUCE with her arms outstretched as if to strangle GLAUCE. Then the boxes finally fall over and the BOYS tumble out, as though dead. JASON and GLAUCE see MEDEA and cower. Then MEDEA sees the BOYS lying on the floor and is frozen between her desire to destroy JASON/GLAUCE and her desire to attend to her children.

SCENE 17

MEDEA is in the driving seat of a car. BOY 1 is asleep on the back seat. BOY 2 sits beside MEDEA in the front.

B2

Do you love?

MEDEA

Yes.

B2

I mean, who do you love?

MEDEA

I love you.

B2

Is that why I’m here?

MEDEA

You’re here because you want to be.

B2

Am I?

Pause.

Can I say something?

MEDEA

Yes.

B2

I don’t like Dad any more.

Pause.

Mrs Arthur at school says that’s like not liking myself.

MEDEA

Do you like yourself?

B2

Yes.

Pause.

Dad makes me so angry I sometimes want to kill him. Then I feel really guilty afterwards.

Pause.

Mrs Arthur says that if you think something, it’s the same as doing it.

MEDEA

That’s not true.

B2

That’s what I said. And she said that if I talked back again, I’d have to stand outside the classroom. So I said, what if I just think about talking back? I was SO sure she’d send me out, but she didn’t. I bet she thought about it though.

MEDEA smiles. Long pause.

MEDEA

I’m going to go away.

B2

Are you?

MEDEA

Yes.

B2

How long for?

MEDEA

A long time.

Pause.

B2

Will you come back?

MEDEA

No.

Pause.

B2

Will we see you?

MEDEA

No.

Long pause.

B2

What’s going to happen to us?

MEDEA

You’ll live with your dad.

B2

At her house?

MEDEA

Yes.

B2

She’ll never let us do that.

MEDEA

She’ll have to.

Pause.

B2

Why are you going?

MEDEA

Because I’ll die if I don’t.

B2

But we’ll die if you do.

Pause.

Everything will change if you do that.

MEDEA

I know.

B2

I’ll hate you.

MEDEA

I know.

B2

He’ll hate you too. But I’ll hate you more.

Pause.

Do you have to?

MEDEA

Yes.

B2

When?

Pause.

When?

Pause.

Wait, is that where we’re going? Just wait! Are we going there now?

Pause.

Is that where we’re going?

Lights out.

SCENE 18

MESSENGER

One tries to keep a balanced view
of humans and the things they do;
but speaking for moi and moi alone
this is too naughty to condone.
What could be easier to condemn
than a mother abandoning her children?
A mother’s task is to protect:
unnatural should she defect.
Surely she should take the hit –
let him get away with it –
spare those lambs the fear and pain,
sacrifice herself, not them…

Shrugs.

I’m just an onlooker to this drama –
though that does involve a degree of trauma.
One doesn’t like to take sides
But fact is, a divided house divides
itself down to the last crumb.
Partisanship is forced upon one.
As when the earth has a violent spasm
People find themselves on either side of the chasm
Somewhat randomly.
Entre nous, I’m sure you agree
the husband’s somewhat easier to like –
the wife’s about as cuddly as an iron spike.
And personally speaking, I like to back a winner:
I’m not that fussed if he’s saint or sinner.
Still, one felt for her – how could you not?
Discarded, middle-aged, left there to rot.

But the future belongs to the bold and the amorous:
abandoned wives are at best unglamorous.
You expect her to step aside,
acknowledge defeat by the new young bride;
shout a bit maybe, cry her woe,
but ultimately – to let him go.
Deep down we want her to, let’s admit:
the social order depends on it.
Anything else is too much of a chore:
this whining about justice is a bit of a bore.
We’ve all homes to go to – the show must go on.
So suck it up darling, and let’s move on.
Didn’t you know? Betrayal’s common enough.
Not that we’re saying that it’s not tough.
It’s just that sometimes a man wants to step out of his own history
in middle age. The mystery
of self finds no other solution.

Pause.

But we gods see it as a form of pollution,
this grabbing of the wheel of fate.
Hubris and insolence are what we hate.
We are the writers of the human plot.
Free to decide your own fates you are not.
Imbalance offends our whole sense of art.
The self-willed man denies his part
in the human design.
He spoils the line
and must be corrected.
Our authority is disrespected
when a man is ruled by sex, and worse
when he tries to call it honour. Our curse
will allow him no rest.
The pretty face was a test
of ego and he failed it. Sex is a trick
the gods have devised. A man’s prick
is where right and wrong fight it out.
Truth must win the bout
or all hell is let loose.
To begin with it looked like he’d get what he wanted:
a second life, novelty, beauty, all granted.
But the wife understood the rules of this game.
Story and truth must be one and the same.
Narration is governed by laws pure as maths –
art and life follow parallel paths.
Of all things she feared mockery the most,
so she took that fear and made it her boast.
Her construction
was pure destruction:
a story written with a smile, not a frown.
A story that made her husband look a clown
and his pretty new wife a comical bitch
whose face was a mask for a hideous witch.
The laws of truth were inverted,
turned upside down, but not perverted.
The show was an instant smash hit.
All that anger disguised as wit
was like sugar-coated hate.
People lapped it up and fate
changed direction.
This plot received a major correction.
The nation watched riveted in their houses:
it went global, her tale of rotten spouses.
The husband became a figure of fun,
but the girl was the real public enemy number one.
Life’s like that for women, they get the blame.
Her charmed life was instantly blackened with shame.
Pilloried and laughed at wherever she went,
her cosseted brain took a positive dent.
It was never the strongest of organs; the part
that was strange was how life mimicked art.
In the show she grows fat, and gambles their cash;
the pearl choker gives her a permanent rash.
Being stuck with the kids drives her out of her mind;
she’s jealous as a cat, and a tad more unkind.
She drones on and on about poor little me;
her friends see the situation and flee.
Thing is, she’d always had all the attention:
so married life just feels like detention.
She’s cruel to the boys, who stay locked in their room;
she drinks all alone, in a house like a tomb.
Her husband, after all that boasting and bragging,
is driven out by her bitching and nagging.
So she sits with her little pet dog in her lap,
her only true friend in this sad marriage trap.
All this came to pass in actuality;
fiction became factuality.
Her infamy grew faster and faster
and before our eyes grew into disaster.
One day, on the doorstep of their place,
a stranger threw acid in her face.
Her skin was burned entirely away:
That witless villain, beauty, died that day.
The daughter’s downfall was the end of the father;
The loss of her looks was the fatal lather.
These narcissists love their children like sin;
so off he went to the loony bin.
His business went bust, the house was sold;
Jason found himself out in the cold,
just like Medea wrote it.
You might quote it:
Medea was a prophetess.
In fact she willfully got redress
by understanding a moral confusion
and following it to its logical conclusion.
Quite clubbable, we gods find her:
the hard truth isn’t something you have to remind her
of. She looked at her predicament
with eyes quite free of sentiment.
That’s not a quality you humans tend to display.
It’s why we’re in charge, vous comprenez?
You confuse facts with feelings for the sake of convenience.
You condemn what’s right; to what’s wrong you show lenience.
Still, so much misfortune would derange
any man; and Jason turned strange,
for man he is, human not devil.
His ex-wife’s revel
of revenge laid him low.
His work dried up; with two children in tow,
penniless now, and with a ruined wife,
he despaired of what would become of his life.
He turned thin and silent; he went out at night,
running, black-clad, avoiding the light.
A swift-footed wraithe, broken and poor,
with the tabloid press camped at his door.
He couldn’t get what he wanted.
For want he was haunted and hunted.
It was wicked, what she wrote; says moi, anyway.
Happiness is a shadow that quickly fleets away
when you look at it too hard.
If she loved her husband so much,
why cause him such pain? Are any of us that important?
And so, the last chapter of this farce:
the husband finds himself out on his arse.
His plans and ambitions all wrecked.
His fatal vanity checked.
Darkness is coming for him, black and true.
Call it justice or call it evil, up to you.

SCENE 19

The stage is bare. MEDEA stands on one side and JASON on the other. Both are holding their phones. The desk with photographs of the BOYS in silver frames stands between them. JASON dials and MEDEA’s phone rings. She answers it.

MEDEA

I’m in the middle of something. I don’t have –

JASON

You need to come.

MEDEA

– time to talk. I’ll call –

JASON

You need to come right now.

MEDEA

– another time. I’m in the middle –

JASON (Shouting.)

Well fucking stop!

MEDEA

– of something.

JASON weeps down the phone. MEDEA is silent.

JASON

Relentless.

MEDEA

What?

JASON

You are. I never knew.

Weeps again.

I never knew what you were.

Pause.

MEDEA

I was more than you deserved.

Pause.

JASON

The boys have really –

MEDEA

And I’ll see –

JASON
done it. They’ve really –

MEDEA
you dead.

JASON
done it this time.

MEDEA

I’ll see you –

JASON

Can you shut up?

MEDEA

– dead. I’ll see –

JASON

Can you fucking shut up?

MEDEA

– you dead.

JASON (Shouting.)

Can you fucking shut up and listen!

Pause. He weeps.

I’m at the hospital. Do you hear me? I’m at the hospital.
They killed the dog. Are you listening? They killed the fucking
dog. They kicked her to death like a pair of fucking delinquents.
Then they locked themselves in their room and ate a bottle of
painkillers between them. You did this to them. This is your fault.
Can you fucking hear me? They ate a bottle of painkillers.
They fed them to each other like fucking Smarties.

Pause.

Do you even care if they’re alive?

Pause.

Do you?

Pause.

Do you? Jesus, do you? Don’t you want to know?

Pause.

Don’t you?

Pause.

Don’t you fucking want to know?

The CLEANER enters and starts mopping around the couple and the desk.

CLEANER

My mother say man can never be your friend. She say, if my husband my friend today, tomorrow maybe he my enemy. Then where I be? She say, better have woman as friend. But I don’t want. Two woman friend like two slave friend. Friendship strong maybe, but both people weak. Like sandwich with nothing inside.

She stops mopping and straightens up.

Tomorrow I leaving this place.

Pause.

I like to go to the beach. I want feel the sun on my face, like when I was young girl. I just lie there my eyes close and feel the sun. Think nothing. Think nothing cept how good it feel, live in my body.

She starts to mop again around the desk and knocks it by mistake. The two photographs fall to the floor and smash.

End.

At the Almeida, we strive to create theatre that asks questions of its audiences, of who they are and the world they live in. We believe that the work we present must be alive and resonant, as far away as possible from being dusty cultural heritage.

So when we came to the writers of Ancient Greece, the founding fathers of theatre as we know it, we wanted to be true to their plays – staging them in full complexity, presenting their formal iconoclasm, their humour, musicality, politics, violence and unswerving drama.

These writers took society’s old myths and made them new: changed them, exploded them, set them loose as contemporary stories that spoke to their city. At the same time, they posed big, provocative, sometimes uncomfortable questions; ones which, two thousand years later, we still struggle to answer.

We want to follow their example. We are taking the Greeks out of the Attic.

Medea is the third of three major new productions of Greek tragedy roaring into our theatre from May to October 2015. Alongside these, inspired in form and spirit by the Greek Dionysia, we will also present a festival of other work in the theatre and off-site, including responses, talks, readings and panels. We hope you can join us.

Rupert Goold, Artistic Director