Medea (1978 play)

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Medea is a stage play directed by Yukio Ninagawa adapted from the Greek play of the same name by Euripides. It was first performed in Japan in 1978, and became popular in 1983. In 2005, he directed a second version of the play.

Yukio Ninagawa stages a subversive and compelling interpretation of Euripides' Medea, a story of revenge, power and murder. He draws on traditional Japanese theatre techniques of kabuki and Noh to shed light on modern Japanese culture and to inspire women. He takes special interest in exploring gender roles, with his all-male cast, and drawing parallels between Edo period Japan and modern-day Japan, where segregation and discrimination can still be seen. He uses costume in unique and deeply representative ways, heavily leaning on traditional kabuki techniques to portray the power Medea holds.

Medea by Yukio Ninagawa - 1978 and onwards

Gender roles

Ninagawa sets his Medea in Japan, where gender divisions were and still are very prevalent. Especially in the Edo Period (see more in Social Commentary), women were expected to ‘distrust herself and to obey her husband', a theme that Ninagawa subverts by using an all-male cast to empower Medea. Ninagawa said he interpreted the play as a 'story about the battle between men's Western-style, black and white logic and women's essentially emotional, intuitive and polychrome nature.', and that he staged it to show Japanese women that they can be strong and straightforward, like Medea. Ninagawa, therefore opted for showing Medea as the victim of her gender, trapped in the patriarchal society, exiled by the king and her husband, and forced to 'act out'. The sympathy is placed with Medea, who remains strong-willed and determined not to submit to male dominance. Ninagawa also utilizes the Japanese style of kabuki (alongside Noh theatre and Western theatre traditions), a form that has a strong history of female prostitution (1603), and oppression of women with exclusively male performers allowed from 1629 onwards. Greek plays were also traditionally performed using only male actors. Ninagawa uses these traditions to explore and subvert the gender roles in Medea even further, giving her a male performer to make her female character more powerful and outspoken, and to draw attention to the prejudice in Japanese and Greek theatre traditions.

Social Commentary

Ninagawa's interpretation of Medea is set in the Tokugawa era (1603-1868), a time of strict social reform, dividing society into four classes (Samurai, Peasants, Artisans and Merchants) arranged by morality of trade and livelihood. This stratification process gave way to outlier classes which Medea may have fallen into as a foreigner, and a woman. Women were still expected to submit to men and to serve them, creating the stark divide between the empowered Medea in the unempowered society of a feudal, military government where the divisions were used to restrict the rights of women. The emphasis on this social unbalance shows the patriarchal society of modern Japan to be anachronistic. The government of the Tokugawa era was the last feudal, military government, and used power to control the rights of classes and women. This extreme control leads Medea in Ninagawa's production to extreme measures, and to try to take control under the society she is a victim of.

Costumes

The use of costume in Ninagawa's Medea is striking to a Western audience, drawing on kabuki theatre techniques and Japanese culture, whilst subverting these traditions. Medea is dressed in a stiff and heavy costume (weighing around 20 kilograms) that imitates, whilst not copying, the kimono. The weight and size of this costume objectifies Medea's femininity and shows how she is trapped in her gender and the gender roles of Japanese society. Variations on the kimono design include large, artificial breasts seen on the second layer of the costume under a large outer robe made from fifty brocade obis, a headdress with sequins, horns and a dolls face in place of traditional cherry blossoms and combs. However, this elaborate costume has enough similarities to traditional Japanese dress (similar materials are used, the headdress is of a similar shape to some feminine kabuki characters, and the ribbons hanging from the headdress evoke geisha kabuki roles) to place it within Japanese culture. A sense of the foreign is given off with this strange but familiar costume, like Medea is the foreigner in her society. The use of make-up on Medea is a less pronounced form of female kabuki makeup (white face and black teeth) and the black/blue colouring applied around Medea's eyes refers to a supernatural, evil or male character. This portrays Medea as being a woman, but a woman with male power and evil capabilities (as shown later on in the play). Another interesting use of Medea's costume is how, as the play progresses, the costume is removed, including the artificial breasts, and Medea is left in a tight fitting, red robe (also hearkening to kabuki techniques). By the end of the play, she stands on the chariot in all white. The chorus similarly wear subversions of female costumes, with wide-brimmed hats representing the straw hats of some female kabuki actors, and dark veils covering their faces. Medea's children are dressed in all white, with heavily painted faces, and chatter nonsensically to each other whilst interlocking arms onstage.

Performance notes

An interesting aspect of Ninagawa's production is the 'ribbon scene', where Medea, as her plan for revenge takes hold, draws out a long, red ribbon in agony and the chorus joins her. This scene of seemingly never-ending dance and agony is an especially moving point in the play. The red ribbon is traditionally linked with blood and feminine love in Japan, showing how Medea rejects and reverses gender roles in a poignant and striking action.

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