first night review: medea @ lafitte greenway

The NOLA project present Medea at the Lafitte Greenway (photo credit: Jillian Desirée Oliveras Maldonado)

​First night review: Medea @ Lafitte Greenway
Review by David S Lewis

A powerful sorceress flees her homeland with a famous hero, committing terrible, irreversible acts to save his life and preserve theirs. When he abandons her and their children for a more convenient marriage, his betrayal sets in motion a ferocious reaction. Although this work has echoed through Western history for two millennia, producing Greek theater in 2026 asks a trust-fall of the audience: can a two thousand year-old play speak to modern lives? 

The NOLA Project understand the assignment. Greek theater is serious work for the performers, but audiences were also meant to leave with some responsibility: to bear witness. Perhaps it’s just the weariness of our moment, but sitting on the Greenway with a diverse bunch of neighbors watching an ancient play and sharing the implicit pledge to consider ourselves within the context of this tradition was incredibly cathartic.

Director Gab Reisman’s production sets some dramatic elements aside. Whereas Euripides' Medea was also a divine being, Natalie Boyd’s Medea is entirely mortal. When the gods are out of the action, these stories shrink a little. I suspect that this was a conscious decision, to emphasize the humanity of the characters, and to enhance the feeling that the play was something familiar enough to be containable. It could also be said that denying the gods' activities could allow Medea’s character to accrue more power. 

Although the logical procession of the story is impacted, if every available line of thematic discourse were explored, the production would be unfocused. Reisman is a veteran, an experienced and deft dramatic interpreter, and an accomplished playwright herself: I don’t doubt for a moment that these omissions were weighed considerations. 

This is a feminist Medea, as it has always been, but the admirable modern inclination toward inclusiveness in casting does leave some 2,400-year-old emphases on the table. In casting the always-magnetic Aria Jackson as King Creon, the director somewhat dilutes the ancient narrative. This story is about men trying to control a woman who doesn’t merely reject their assertions of dominance: she utterly dismembers multiple entire lineages of male power. Jackson’s Creon is convincing and well performed, but the sense that powerful male characters are set against Medea and the female characters' morally entangled sorority is slightly reduced by that casting.

The entire ensemble is strong, though, offering believable performances. Robinson J. Cyprian offers a comic turn for Aegeus, the Athenian king Medea manipulates into providing sanctuary. She sews the unwitting royal into her schemes, demonstrating how fluidly she’s able to adapt to the dynamics of her situation. 

Jon Greene impresses as Jason, whose self-serving justifications for his betrayal feel like an indictment of all the awful men that women are constantly derided for objecting to - an exercise in self assessment for any men willing to look upon Jason and see themselves reflected back. This is what really good theater does: it follows us home; it looks back at us from our mirrors. Reisman made some trades with Euripides because she knew how to bargain with him on her own terms, and gave us a Medea we readily recognize – and therefore may learn from. 

The attention to detail extended beyond special effects and costuming. Production manager Tova Steele used the laundry hung by the chorus of Corinthian women to show us torn sheets, symbolizing the mangled marriage bed. The Chorus, often a stumbling block for modern directors but an essential element of Greek dramaturgy, was beautifully woven into the production, and they sang some lines in a nod to ancient practice.

The NOLA Project’s Medea ultimately succeeds, and Reisman’s decisions are vindicated. The audience was perceptibly distressed when Medea’s awesome wrath was finally manifested; they gaped at the final dialogue between the stricken father and the mother whose declaration of independence was bloody and final; and they waited anxiously as the play wrapped, unsure and uneasy. 

Their thoughts and emotions were enthralled to Boyd and Greene’s fury and despair, and to Reisman’s unsparing portrayal of their uncoupling. If her intention was to make the characters more visceral by emphasizing their humanity, she achieved that. I hope that audiences feel compelled to discuss what they witnessed, and that those conversations are rewarded with more Greek theater staged in the city.

MEDEA plays at Greenway Station (436 N Norman C Francis Parkway), perfromances are on May 22,  24, 28, 29, and 30. All performances begin at 7:30. Bring your own lawn chair (or purchase a premium seat) - you can reserve tickets here
​