‘Medea’ Lacks a Grandeur Plan

Even a less-than-overpowering production of “Medea” at the Alternative Repertory Theatre, which has launched the company’s 10th-anniversary season, shows why this ancient Greek tragedy remains one of the most personal, heartbreaking explorations of a woman’s torment more than two millenia after it was written.

If not for Medea, Jason never would have captured the Golden Fleece. For love of him, she uses her magical powers to help him defeat fire-breathing bulls and dragon-toothed warriors; she charms the terrible serpent that guarded the Golden Fleece; she betrays her father, the king of Colchis, and her brother for Jason’s sake.

And what does Medea get in return?

Exile from her native land, and, in the end, exile from Corinth, where she had fled with Jason, who fathered her two children, and his scorn and abandonment when he chooses to marry a younger woman, the daughter of the king of Corinth.

Little wonder that Medea is bitterly, furiously outraged. A sorceress of wild passion, high intelligence and great pride, she reviles Jason for his royal ambition, seeing him as a ruthless ingrate who has ruined her. And so she vows revenge.

That, in short, is the legend of Jason and Medea.

With such good material to work from, it is no surprise that Euripedes fashioned a chilling and provocative feminist drama that still rivets our attention. And while ART’s bare yet atmospheric production is not nearly as heartbreaking as it could be, this “Medea” nonetheless conveys both the psychological trauma inflicted upon a woman who has sacrificed everything for love and the horrific terror she inflicts on her lover for his brazen insult.

W. Hale’s well-spoken portrait of Medea is successful as far as it goes, but it fails to capture the grandeur of a tragic figure fallen from a great height. The portrayal concentrates instead on Medea’s anguish, to the exclusion of most everything else.

Her performance is a function perhaps of the intimate ART playing space. It is difficult, if not impossible, to create the necessary distance that grandeur requires in an in-the-round presentation that brings the characters within arm’s length of the audience, invariably cutting them down to small scale.

A certain intensity is lost as well in Paul Popov’s ordinary portrayal of Jason, which is salvaged to some degree by the stony mask that hides his face in modified Greek tradition, courtesy of designer Gary Christensen.

In fact, Christensen’s masks for the male characters and director Patricia L. Terry’s wise use of them as symbolic puppets to represent Medea and Jason’s doomed children lend a welcome touch of austerity and mystery to the production.

Similarly, the understated tunic costumes in earth tones are apt and effective. They complement the spare translation by Robinson Jeffers, which not only wastes no words but also gives a virile sense of the text.

Also effective are Terry’s fluent, unadorned staging and Joanne Lecocq’s able set design suggesting ancient Corinth with a jagged marble slab and a see-through temple column.

So while ART’s “Medea” may not be the unalloyed triumph we would wish, it is a promising start to what we hope will be an auspicious season.

* “Medea,” Alternative Repertory Theatre, 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Friday-Saturday 8 p.m.; Sunday 5 p.m. Ends Nov. 17. $16-$18. (714) 836-7929. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes (no intermission).

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“Medea,”

W. Hale: Medea

Lee Anne Moore: Chorus

April Holladay: Nurse

Paul Popov: Jason/Tutor

Todd Weldon: Creon/Aegeus/Fate

An Alternative Repertory Theatre production of a play by Euripedes, translated by Robinson Jeffers. Directed by Patricia L. Terry. Producer: Gary Christensen. Assistant producer: Joel T. Cotter. Scenic design: Joanne Lecocq. Costume design: Kathryn Kemper. Lighting design: Kristan Clark. Mask design: Christensen. Sound design: John R. Fisher. Stage manager: Teresa White.