Medea of Franco Branciaroli is a play represented in 2018.

The story of the original greek

tragedy is complied: Medea, after abandoning her father, went to Corinto with his
husband Giasone, with whom she had two children. After some years Giasone ripudiated
her, in order to marry Creonte’s (Corinto’s king) daughter. Medea got angry and tried to
revenge.
Branciaroli maneges to interpret with intensity the checkered feelings of Medea: devilish
avenger, guilty, angry, grieving. Branciaroli’s acting is the core of the play, because it’s
exaggerated and parody, and it separetes from reality. The separation from realism makes
Branciaroli nearer to the theatre of ancient greek. His speech and his movements,
sometime strongly humorous, grab the focus of the public and make the play very
grotesque and more disturbing. This type of acting is supported by all the cast, partyculary
by Alfonso Veneroso, who played GIasone, and he showed the character by the point of
view of Medea, so he’s seen as an uncaring scoundrel, with whom is very difficult to
empathyze, at least until the end, in which his sons die. The others actors are up to the
standards, particullary king Egeo, the nurse and the women who side with medea.
Another important element of the play is the merging of antiquity and modernity, that has
allowed to place the play in an atemporal zone. This merging is particullary highlighted
with the presence of the choir, that reminds to Euripide’s tragedies, but at the same time
the costumes, the props and the background remind to the 30s. Walls are cracked, on the
right side of the stage there’s a spiral staircase that represent the Corinto’s palace. Over
the stage there are a lot of common objects: trunks, a bed, chairs and armchairs. The
colors of scenery are red in contrast to dark gray. Particular is the forklift on which Medea
stays on the final scene. Makes Medea staying on that, sitting on a bathtub dirty of the
blood of her childrens was the point of highest climax, but also punk and grotesque.