THE MEDEA

after Müller, Euripides, Cherubini, Dreyer, and Seneca

conceived and directed by Jay Scheib

Featuring: Zishan Ugurlu* as Medea, Dan Illian* as

Jason, Aimee McCormick* as the Nurse, Dima
Dubson as a Son / Creon, and Oleg Dubson as a Son /
Aegeus

with original songs composed and performed by Margareth

Kammerer; video design by Leah Gelpe; scenic design by Michael
Byrnes, costume design by Oana Botez-Ban; lighting design by
Lucrecia Briceno; dramaturgy by Peter Campbell; assistant director
Shira Milikowsky; production manager Mercedes Murphy.

January 13 to 30
La MaMa E.T.C. (The Club), 74A East Fourth Street
Presented by The Club at La MaMa in association with Actors
without Borders-ITONY (International Theater of New York)
Th-Sat at 10:00 pm, 5:30 pm Sun, $15 or $12 members/tdf
Box office (212) 475-7710 ~ On-line ticketing available at:
www.lamama.org​. Critics are invited on or after January 13
Runs 70 minutes

La MaMa Experimental Theater Club ~ Ellen Stewart,

Founder/Artistic Director

Jonathan Slaff, Press Representative ~ 212/924-0496 ~ ​js@jsnyc.com

~ for immediate release

1 
 
 2 
 
The Medea

The scene like a vacated retail store. A gap or worse / better, but
Recently abandoned. The old carpet, old parquet, old tile, and the
mirrors. Or like the waiting room of a clinic. Or a room where
foreigners wait to be nationalized / patriotized. In the back a
changing room which has been turned into a kind of family room
where Medea lives with her sons. Mirrors and wallpaper of a
seaside landscape. A coffee machine. A guitar. A knife. A cake.
Other miscellaneous kitchen items. Cookies.

 
 

3 
 
THE MEDEA 
 
 
 
PROLOGUE  
Jason, his head under a beam. Blood. Plaster and lathe and a 2 by
12” beam split his head in two. He is clearly dead. But recently
dead.

Nurse stands SL of the Skene.

MUSIC: “La Tua pelle e qui”

VIDEO: Medea in the back room, dancing. Close-up on Jason’s

face.

Nurse exits USL

Blackout
Music out

4 
 
SCENE 1 JASON IS DEAD. THE NURSE IS LEFT ALONE. SHE
WISHES THAT IT HADN’T HAPPENED LIKE THIS.
(Jason and the Nurse.)

(Jason still on the floor under the beam.)

(Video: The Room. Jason’s face.)
(Nurse enters from USL)

Nurse.
Things never work out the way we think.
But I wish it wouldn’t happen. Not like this.
Love comes and goes. Sink your teeth
into your heart, and go.

(Nurse exits USL)

 
 

5 
 
SCENE 2 JASON’S FAMOUS LAST WORDS BEFORE
DISAPPEARING INTO THE LANDSCAPE OF HIS DEATH. ON
HIS HEAD THE ROOF OF HIS FAMOUS BOAT CAVED IN.

(Jason)

Jason.
Shall I speak of me, I who
Of whom are they speaking when
They do speak of me I Who is it
In the rain of bird shit In the hide of lime
‘Tween nothing and no one
I scum of a man I scum of
A woman
Platitude piled on platitude
(pause)

I my sea voyage
I my annexation My
I My death
The slaughtered tree
The pop of beer cans
FROM THE LIFE OF A MAN
Memory of a tank battle
My walk through the outskirts I
Between the rubble and ruins it’s growing
between the I and the No more I
The youth of today
ghosts of The dead
from the war that will happen tomorrow

YET WHAT REMAINS IS CREATED BY BOMBS

6 
 
Wordmud from my

(MUSIC: “Un giordino”)

Abandoned no man’s body

At the nightly window between city

And landscape we watched the flies dying slowly
As Nero stood exultant above Rome
Until the car drove up sand in the gearbox
Until the wolf stood in the street as the car fell apart
Wear and tear is part of the plan
During the ride we heard the screen rip
And watched the images crash into each other
The forests burned in EASTMAN COLOR
Our port was a dead movie house
On the screen the stars rotted in competition
In the lobby John Ford strangled John Wayne
DO YOU REMEMBER DO YOU NO I DON’T
The dried up blood
Is smoking in the sun
The theatre of my death
Had opened as I stood between the mountains
In the midst of my dead comrades on the stone
And the expected airplane appeared above me
Without thinking I knew
This engine was
What my grandmothers used to call God
The airblast swept the corpses off the plateau
And shots crackled at my reeling flight

7 
 
I felt MY blood come out of MY veins
And turn MY body into the landscape
Of MY death
IN THE BACK THE SWINE
The rest is poetry Who has the better teeth
The blood or the stone

Music out.
Jason exits
In darkness: Nurse enters, sets up chairs.

  
   

8 
 
SCENE 4 MEDEA LEAVES TOWN WITH THE BODIES OF HER
SONS AND GOES TO ATHENS WHERE SHE WILL MARRY A
KING AND BECOME THE QUEEN—JUST LIKE JASON WAS
TRYING TO DO. JASON’S DREAMS DESTROYED UTTERLY.
 
(Nurse onstage alone. Walks up and down several times. Stops at
the door.)

Nurse.
Your heart has stopped. It’s like a rock. You killed your sons. I know
only one other woman who did it. She went crazy, Now she’s dead.
This is bad. What a horror movie? Women’s love, it’s so full of
pain——I’m so sorry. Count them Medea.

(Enter Jason)

Jason.
She killed Creon and Glauce, the princess who would have been
Our Queen and protected Our Children and now there is nothing.
And no one. Does she think she’ll get away? They will hunt her
down—does she think kings have no friends? I am here for the
boys—I have to protect them—they’ll kill them. They’ll kill you too.

Nurse.
You have no idea how close to sorrow you are—

Jason.
What?

Nurse.
Your children are already dead, she killed them.

9 
 
Jason.
What? Where are they? Where are they—are they in the house?

Nurse.
Open the door. You will see they’re bodies.

Jason.
Open the door!

(Medea in a chariot above the house drawn by dragons. She has

the dead bodies of the children with her. Jason, trying to open the
door.)

Medea.
Why are you smashing the door Jason. Do you want the corpse or
do you want me? If you want something from me, then ask, if you
want to. I have a lot to say. But I will be brief. No princess No king
Creon No husband drives me away and doesn’t pay. Today is
payday Jason. You owe me a brother.

Jason.
You killed my children.

Medea.
Yes. (short pause) I cut you out of my heart Jason, but you will
never forget me.

Jason.
O children! what an evil mother she was to you!

Medea.

10 
 
O Children! You are Victims of your father’s disease!

Jason.
I didn’t kill them.

Medea.
Your virgin wedding killed them Jason.

Jason.
You killed them for that?

Medea.
Is love so small a pain for a woman Jason?

Jason.
I hate you. How can you say this? Bitch fuck butt cunt

Medea.
The children are dead and I’m saying this to make you suffer.
(pause) so, Hate me.

Jason.
Give me my sons.

Medea.
NO and don’t ask again

Jason.
I hate you.

Medea.
Go Bury your bride.

11 
 
Jason.
Let me see them.

Medea.
I won’t. These children will live in infamy but you, Jason, you who
stole the golden fleece, you with your short memory, and your
famous boat, you will die without distinction. Wait for the FUTURE
Jason. Stumbling from hole to hole toward the final hole—that’s
where the Argo cracks your skull—and it will Jason—your boat
Jason will kill you Jason. It will break your skull. And you know it.
(short pause.) Nurse?

Nurse.
Yes?

Medea.
Do you know this man?

Jason.
Medea.

MUSIC: Syllable song.

Transition: Nurse set up chairs, crosses into the house

Jason exits.

12 
 
SCENE 5 MEDEA KILLS HER CHILDREN INSTEAD OF
LETTING SOMEONE ELSE DO IT FOR AND INSTEAD OF
TAKING THE CHILDREN WITH HER TO ATHENS

(Medea, Nurse, the boys onstage. The boys go into the house.)

Medea
It would hurt more to suffer them slain by another
and since
This must be so, then I shall kill them
For this one short day be forgetful of your children
Afterward weep; for even though you will kill them,
They were very dear—

(medea goes into the house. The oldest boy comes out. Medea kills
Oleg.)

Nurse
I should stop her.

(Dima goes in the room. Sounds of Medea killing Dima. Nurse

stabs herself in the leg with a small knife.)
Music: “La Tua Pelle e que”

13 
 
SCENE 6 THE TWO BOYS COME HOME, THEY DELIVERED
THE GIFT THEY CAN STAY BUT THEIR MOTHER MUST GO
AND THEN THE NURSE COMES—SHE SAW IT ALL. THE
MESSENGER SCENE AND EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT.

(enter the two boys. They talk about the princess. That she has
nice hair. That she is about their age. Etc. Enter Medea. Mother
and Sons. Enter Nurse. She goes out and comes directly back. She
goes out and comes directly back. She goes out and comes directly
back and the boys attack her and tackle her and try to tickle her.
SHE, VISIBILY ANNOYED GOES INTO THE KITCHEN. SHE
WITH A KNIFE CUTS AN ONION IN HALF.)

Nurse.
I don’t hope any more. No hope, No hope for these boys, who won’t
outlive their mother, why forage for reasons I who, what
unhappiness. I have known intelligent women but not many who
can bear the complexities of this argument. Only those who have
never had children, in happiness, have an advantage over those
who are parents. The childless, their failure to have children, spares
them the pain of seeing whether their children turn out to be a good
thing or something that causes pain. It remains a mystery. And
even if you do a good job they might die, from leukemia—where’s
the profit? What was the point? What was it for?

( Enter Nurse from the house)

Nurse
You should go. You should really go.

Medea

14 
 
why
Nurse
When your two children, born of you, had entered in,
Their father with them, and passed into the bride’s house,
She covered her eyes in disgust and turned away,
Jason comforted her and said “look not unkindly on our friends.
take these gifts, and beg your father to reprieve
These children from their banishment—do it, for my sake, please”
She, when she saw the dress, could not restrain herself.
She agreed with all her husband said, and before
He and the boys had gone far from the palace,
She took the gorgeous robe and dressed herself in it,
And put the golden crown on her curly head,
And arranged the set of the hair in a shining mirror,
And smiled at the lifeless image of herself in it.
Then she rose from her chair and twirled about the room,
She was stunned and overjoyed with the present—
But after that it was a terrifying thing to see.
The color of her face changed, and she staggered back,
She ran, staggering and her legs trembling,
white foam broke through her lips and her Eyes
Rolled back—the blood like a tide drawn from her face—and
Then a huge shriek, and the women ran, some to the king,
some to the newly wedded husband Jason to tell him
—And she, pale bloodless, poor girl, and with her one eye
spinning lazily into focus, groaning she came to.
As a two fold pain rose through her body, her chest her neck.
The wreath of gold that was resting around her head
Let forth a fearful stream of all-devouring fire,
And the finely woven dress your children gave to her,
Was fastening on the unhappy girl’s fine flesh

15 
 
Shaking her hair trying to hurl the crown away; but
The gold preserved its grip, and, the more she shook,
The hotter the flame—water would not quench it.
As her eyes melted across her cheeks like tears,
she sank to the ground
unrecognizable, utterly, except by a parent.
From the top of Her head oozed blood and fire together.
Like the drops on pine-bark, so the flesh from her bones
Dripped away, trimmed by the hidden fang of the poison.
It was a fearful sight; and terror held us all
From touching the corpse.
We had learned from what had happened.
But her father, knowing nothing of the event,
Came suddenly to the room, and fell upon the corpse,
Crying out and took her in his arms as best he could
And kissed her and spoke to her, saying, “o my poor child,
What power has so shamefully destroyed you?
Deprived of you? I’ll die with you, my child!”
And when he had made an end of his wailing and crying,
And the man wished to raise himself to his feet;
He could not, the fine dress still adhering despite the fire,
and he struggled fearfully—trying to lift himself to his knee,
And she was pulling him down, and when he pulled hard
His veins ripped His flesh tore way. Suprised
By an agonizing death—I can still see fear in his eyes
Unhappy man, his head fell, softly in defeat.
And there they lie, the daughter and the father,
Two dead bodies.

Medea.
Good.

16 
 
Nurse.
Should it not make us weep?
You will find your own escape from punishment,
I have nothing to say—I have thought this before
But now I know—Human life, it is only shadows.
Shadows and nothing more.
Those who seek out wisdom in the reason of things
Bring the most sorrow upon themselves.
Among men and women there is no happiness
Maybe she can be rich and in so far luckier than
The rest, but not happier. Maybe not even content.
There is no happiness.

Medea.
Yes.

(​Medea crosses into the house and closes the door.)

Music: Overture of Cherubini’s “Medee”

Transition: Marg. Airplane DSR

Nurse dances moving SR.
Medea sharpens the knife in the house.
Marg. loses her balance, crosses into the house,
switches off the music.

17 
 
SCENE 7 JASON AND MEDEA MAKE LOVE ONE LAST
TIME TOGETHER AND THE BOYS AND THE NURSE EAT CAKE
AND SING OPERA TOGETHER.

(Medea in the small room with her two sons. She is sharpening a
kitchen knife on the bottom of a china/ceramic coffee cup or saucer.
When the opera cuts out (it is the first track—the overture of
Medea) what remains is the sound of the knife on ceramic. And
then she pours the coffee into the cup.)

(Jason enters. He waits outside. The Nurse goes inside to get her.)

Nurse
Jason is here.

Medea
Good

Nurse
Make no more enemies

Medea
I’m not going to have enemies.

Nurse
Don’t torture yourself think of the future

18 
 
Medea
I am thinking of the future

Nurse
Think of the boys

Medea
I am thinking of my sons

Nurse
Oh.

(Medea exits the room. Jason is waiting for her. She carries a
blanket and one condom.)

Jason
What do you want

Medea
Forgive my sentences. I was angry and I spoke bitterly. I see know
that it was I who was wrong and hard, hard and I was relentless.

Jason
I think this is for the best

Medea
Yes. I have. I am trying to be reasonable. We should be friends.
You marry her and you’re famous and power is yours and wealth to
secure the future of our children and I—I understand, it’s
reasonable and wise. I mean, she is a princess and you will be a
king. It’s so smart.

19 
 
Jason
I’m glad you finally see things my way.

Medea
It was stupid of me not to have helped you realize your plan.
Women can be hot-headed sometimes. Do you remember Jason?

(Nurse and the boys go into the house.)

Jason
That question is always on your lips.

Medea
But this is​ ​the last time, Do you remember, Jason?

(long pause) (They make love. 7 minutes or so. Inside, the Nurse
and the boys eat nutella and apples, hug, cut out paper hearts, the
Nurse cries. After three minutes a three minute cherubini segment
plays while Margareth sings along.) (short pause)

Medea.
I know you Jason you have sold yourself to her. Your body was
enough for her.

(looking at her reflection)

When I see myself, I understand you, Jason. And I will leave. But
what of our sons? Can they stay with you? Please don’t let them be
banished with me. Can’t you persuade creon

Jason.
I will try but I don’t think it will work

20 
 
Medea.
let them stay with you it will be easier for me if I know you have
them—

Jason.
I will try but—

(Enter the two boys and the Nurse. They sit and listen.)

Medea.
Then ask your wife to beg of her father

Jason.
yes I can persuade her

Medea.
It will work if you do as I say

Jason.
do what

Medea.
let our sons bear this gift to her. Go with them… they are fair gifts
let the boys present them and she will be happy
Not in one way but in a thousand ways
With so fine a man to share her bed and with this beautiful gift
Which Helius—my father’s father, gave to his descendants
She will agree, she will love our boys

Jason.
Okay. What is the gift

21 
 
(Oleg pushes the gift towards Jason)

Jason.
That’s too much. You keep that. Don’t give that away.

Medea.
She is young and she has all the luck and this is an object of
wildest beauty, But for my children’s reprieve I would give my life
and not gold alone. Go with them, But let the boys give her the gift.
Don’t let anyone else touch it. Please.

Jason.
Okay.

Medea.
Come back right away tell me if she likes it.

Nurse.
Okay.

(exit Jason and Children and Nurse)

Medea enters the house.

Music: “As Your Nightly Dreams”

22 
 
SCENE 8 MEDEA DISCLOSES HER PLAN TO THE NURSE
AND HOW SHE HAS DECIDED THAT SHE MUST KILL HER
CHILDREN TOO AND GO TO AEGEUS IN ATHENS. WHERE
SHE WILL BE SAFE BUT SHE WON’T BRING CHILDREN.
(Medea and the Nurse in the room. On camera. )

Nurse
Now you will go with Aegeus to Athens
Athens is a nice place. A reasonable place.
And he has given his word to protect you there
Don’t make any more enemies don’t
Take the children and go, okay?

Medea
This was my chief distress—but now it’s clear
My escape is clear.

(Enter the boys into the room)

Now I can tell you my plan,

I will send for Jason, I will be Sweet to him and I will be soft
I will say that I agree with him, I will say that I approve
Of his wedding—I will say it was a wise choice and a self-less
choice
To sacrifice his love for me, for the future of our children.
An excellent idea. I will say how wrong I was.
I will say, “Women are prone to crying and lack foresight
You’re a man, you have insight, Jason you were so right.“
But I will beg that my children remain here:
Not that I would live in a country that hates me
Children of mine to be insulted by my enemies.

23 
 
(The Nurse leaves the room)

I will beg him I will call the boys and say

Children go with your father who loves you So much
He kicks away your mother the barbarian
Who burdens you on your way to the top
You Me Do you love them Jason your sons
Do you want them back your sons
They’re yours What can be mine being your slave
So sink your teeth into my heart and go
With your father who did the same before you

(Dima leaves the room)

But leave me the children one more day

And then I will go into my own desert
You still owe me a brother Jason
I can’t hate for long what you love
Love comes and goes I wasn’t prudent was I

(Medea tells Oleg to take his shirt off)

Forgetting that No Grudge shall be between us

Here take my bridal gown as a bridal gift for
My lips can’t say the word with ease your bride

(Medea packs the Bridal gown)

Who will embrace your body Who will cry

On your shoulder will sometimes moan in heat
The gown of love my other skin
Embroidered by the hand of her who has been robbed

24 
 
With gold from Colchis and dyed with the blood from
The bridal feast of fathers brothers sons
It shall adorn your new love just as if
It were my skin So I’ll be close to you
Close to your love and far away from me
Go now to your new wedding Jason go
I’ll turn the bride into a wedding torch
The ash that was my heart is spewing fire
The bride is young Her hide is smoothly stretched
Not wasted yet by age or breeding
It’s on her body that I write my play
I want to hear your laughter when she screams

(Medea kills her son Oleg)

The groom he enters the bridal chamber

Now he places at the young bride’s feet
The barbarian’s bridal gown the bridal
Present soaked in the sweat of my submission
Now see the whore she struts before the mirror
And now the gold of colchis seals her pores
Sinking a field of knives into her flesh
She screams now Have you ears to hear the scream?
She burns Hey laugh I want to see you laugh
My play it is a farce Why don’t you laugh
What tears tears for the bride My little ones
My traitors No you did not cry for nothing
I want to cut you right out of my heart
My Heartflesh My Remembrance My Beloved
Today is payday Jason Your Medea
Will collect her debts today

25 
 
(Dima enters. Medea asks him to take his shirt off and he does and
then he lays down and then she cuts his throat)

Can you laugh now

Would I’d remained the animal I was

Before my man made me into his woman
With these hands the hands of the barbarian
I want to break mankind in two
And live within the empty middle I
No woman and no man What, do you scream
Worse than death is to grow old you’d kiss
The hand that gives you death if you knew life

That was Corinth

(sees her two sons who are now dead dead dead)
Who are you, who has dressed
You in the bodies of my little children,
What animal is hiding in your eyes?
Do you play dead You won’t deceive the mother
It barks it squeaks it hisses I can hear it

Don’t you have blood left Now all is quiet

The screams of Colchis silenced too And nothing left
(Medea comes out of the room and talks to the nurse)
I weep to think that I will have killed my children.

Nurse.
Don’t don’t do it.

Medea.
I can do no other thing.

26 
 
MUSIC: German Rock Song

27 
 
SCENE 9 AEGEUS COMES IN HAVING BEEN TO THE
ORACLE BECAUSE HE WANTS TO HAVE CHILDREN BUT HE
CAN’T AND MEDEA SAYS THAT SHE KNOWS HOW AND SHE
TWISTS HIS NIPPLE AND MAKES A DEAL TO VISIT HIM IN
ATHENS AND LIVE WITH HIM IN HIS HOUSE FOREVER.
(Medea Nurse Enter Aegeus)

(enter aegeus, running. He pukes on the rug, DSL)

Medea
Aegeus?

Aegeus
I wish you so much happiness, Medea
(kisses her maybe for a while) Hi. There is no better greeting
between friends

Medea
Hi, Aegeus, what brings you here

Aegeus
I have been to the oracle of Phoebus

Medea
What did you ask the oracle

Aegeus
Something has made us childless

Medea
What did the oracle say?

28 
 
Aegeus
Who understands what these oracles say?

Medea
Maybe I would understand.

Aegeus
That is exactly why I’m here…. I need Medea’s cleverness.

Medea
What was the oracle’s reply? Tell me.

Aegeus
He said, “Don’t let the wine out of the wineskin not till after you get
home.”
Now what does that mean?

(Enter Nurse. She whispers something to Medea.)

Aegeus
What’s going on Medea?

Medea
We I Me and My Children and I are being sent into exile

Aegeus
Why?

Medea
Jason has thrown me over.

Aegeus

29 
 
For another woman?

Medea
(yes)

Aegeus
hm

Medea
He has married Creon’s daughter, for an alliance with the king.

Aegeus
He has broken his oath to you

Medea
Ambition, to be the king’s son-in-law is no small thing

Aegeus
Jason goes along with your exile.

Medea
He doesn’t stop it.

Aegeus
I can’t believe it.

Medea
Start. (pause.) Aegeus, If I may seek safety in your home, I will give
you children

Aegeus
How Many?

30 
 
Medea.
A lot.

Aegeus.
How?

Medea.
—I know the cure for childlessness. I beg you by your beard and by
your head and at your knees I beg your help. I am ruined and there
is more to come.

Aegeus
My home is open to you. And my protection. You have my word.

Medea
I have your promise.

Aegeus.
You have my promise.

Medea.
And what happens if you break your promise?

Aegeus.
Woa. (short pause) what happens to those with no regard for
heaven.

Medea.
Thank you.

(Aegeus exits. Medea smiles.)

31 
 
Music: Germon song #2

32 
 
SCENE 10 JASON AND MEDEA MAKE A SCENE. STAGE TWO
OF THIS DIVORCE IS TERROR.
(Medea is revealed in the room. Jason enters downstage. The
Nurse stares at him for a moment and then goes to talk to Medea.)

Nurse.
Shall I let him in?

Medea.
I am not welcome here. I might as well be dead.

Nurse.
I’m going to let him in.

Medea.
No. Show me a mousehole, and I’ll fuck the world.

(Medea exits the house.)

Jason.
What do you want?

(Medea smashes a tea cup against the far wall.)

Medea
Does this body
Mean nothing anymore to you Jason
Do you want to drink my blood

Jason.
What were you before I found you?

33 
 
Medea.
You owe me a brother Jason

Jason
Two sons I gave you for a one brother

Medea
Do you want them back your sons?

Jason
What could be luckier for an exile than to marry the daughter of a
King? ---—I married her for your sake

Medea.
For my sake?

Jason.
To secure your future and the future of our children. (pause he
takes her hand ) say what you want (pause) your pride is your
misfortune

Medea.
your pride Jason, is your good fortune. Why should I encourage
your vanity? You are hoping that it will look like I left you? (very
quietly) Asshole. You are betraying your children.

Jason.
I have thought about it. But it is too late. If you had kept your mouth
shut, you could have stayed.

Medea.

34 
 
Have you really thought about your children

Jason.
Women are not the only ones to think about their children. It would
have been better for men to have children another way—a world
without women would have been better!

(she pushes the chairs towards him. He barely notices.)

Jason.
Do you need some money? For you or for the children you can
have whatever of my money that you need.

Medea
No.

Nurse.
(from inside the room)
You are betraying your wife. You’re being a jerk.

Medea.
You have forgotten much that I remember Jason. But you are
licking your lips. And you have been away from your bride a long
time. So Enjoy your good fortune! Your virgin. I wish you a
passionate marriage. One that you will remember. Perhaps one you
will regret.

MUSIC: ITALIAN LOVE SONG #2

35 
 
 36 
 
SCENE 11 CREON COMES AND ASKS THAT MEDEA LEAVE
THE COUNTRY AND TAKE HER CHILDREN WITH HER. MEDEA
IS GIVEN AN EXTRA DAY TO STAY.

Creon
Medea, You have to leave the country. I am banishing you and your
children. I will not return to the palace until the gates of the city
have closed behind you.

Medea.
are you afraid of me King Creon?

Creon.
yes.

Medea.
What for?

Creon.
you can hurt people.

Medea.
whom?

Creon.
my daughter. Me. Jason. I have to take the necessary precautions.

Medea.
I am too weak to oppose you, and you have not wronged me.
Whom you marry your daughter to is your decision. But, let me
remain here. I will cause no trouble—If you let me remain in my
house.

37 
 
(Creon walks inside and looks around. He takes bit out of the onion.
And then walks back outside.)

Creon.
No I don’t think so​, ​Medea, you have to leave. Now, today.

Medea.
Why?

Creon.
my daughter takes precedence over you.

Medea.
and my children?

Creon.
You love yours, I love mine

Medea.
There is no greater sorrow than love

Creon.
I told you I will not return to the palace until the gates of the city
have closed behind you.

(She touches him on the torso.)

Medea.
No.

Creon.

38 
 
Why the show? Why are you touching me?

Medea.
All that I ask of you then is one day. A single day, King Creon, to
make arrangements for my children. Since their father offers no
help to them—have pity.

Creon.
I am no tyrant. I grant you one day. If you are still here tomorrow,
your life is forfeit.

(Creon exits.)

Nurse
Maybe things will be okay.

Medea
yes
I want to hurt them

Nurse
Why?

Medea
Creon has given me one more day To stay
here In the space of this day I will make dead bodies.
What remains is to decide how
Should I set their house on fire?
Or cut their throats and with this knife explode their hearts.
What if I am stopped before I can reach their bed
I will be dead, and they will laugh at me. They will not laugh at me.

39 
 
I will poison them instead. So be it then.

Imagine them dead, imagine their tongues protruding.

But then what? Where will I run. How am I to escape,
What friends?
What friend Grants asylum to me? In what land? What friends?
There are none. So I must wait a little time yet,
And if some possible escape appears—
Then I will set about this murder quietly, carefully

And If not then I’ll do it. I will murder them straight away—
though Death is certain I will kill them with these hands and with
this knife I will kill them both.

40 
 
SCENE BREAK 12 MEDEA ASKS THE NURSE TO KEEP
QUIET AND TO PROMISE TO KEEP OUT OF IT.

(Nurse offers Medea some food.)

Medea.
My life is as empty as this bed. I will have revenge. My husband will
pay for what he has done to me. Him and his father-in-law and the
girl who married him. I am deserted. A refugee. Promise me that
you will keep silent. Promise that you will not interfere.

Nurse.
I promise. Whatever you do, it can’t worse than what was done to
you.

(Nurse eats.)

41 
 
SCENE 13 JASON TELLS MEDEA THAT HE IS LEAVING HER
FOR ANOTHER WOMAN.WHAT HAS HAPPENED IS NOT
NORMAL​.

Jason.
I have decided to take another wife,
Because I don’t love you anymore
But with the other, I am in love

Medea.
But I love you like before.

Music: Track #15 of Cherubini’s “Medee.”

Jason, Medea, Nurse, the boys all dance in the house.

42 
 
SCENE 14 THE NURSE SPEAKS FROM THE LANDSCAPE.
(Nurse comes out of the house, sets herself DSL with mic.)

Despoiled shore Tracks of Flatheaded Argonauts

Reeds Dead Branches
THIS TREE WILL NOT OUTGROW ME Dead fish
Gleam in the mud Cookie boxes Feces Trojans Durex Roughriders
The torn menstrual napkins The blood of the women of colchis
BUT YOU MUST BE CAREFUL YES YES YES YES YES
MUDCUNT I SAY TO HER THAT’S MY MAN SCREW ME COME
SWEETIE Until the Argo crashes his skull the useless ship

[Chorus:]​ ​They sit in the trains Faces made of the tabloids and spit
Each one a naked member in his fly they stare at painted
Flesh Gutter that costs three weeks pay Till the coat of paint
Cracks Their wives keep the dinner warm air the bedding in the
windows brush The vomit out of their Sunday suits
Booze is cheap
The children piss in the empty bottles
Dream of an enormous
Fuck in Chicago
Women smeared with blood
In the morgues
The dead don’t stare into the window
They are not drumming on the john
That’s what they are Earth shat upon by the survivors
SOME WERE HANGING FROM LAMPOSTS THEIR TONGUES
PROTRUDING
IN FRONT OF THE BELLY THE SIGN I AM A COWARD

Yet on the ground Medea Cradling

The brother hacked up to pieces She expert

43 
 
In poisons.

44