3.5*
When it comes to retellings of classic texts, seeing which angle the writer will go for is very interesting. Possible angles include focusing on a side character /seeing how the same subject translates from a play to a different medium / fleshing out an understated theme / imagining how a similar conflict would take place in the present day and how it could be updated while maintaining its core truth / using a well-known and archetypal character to explore an original subject while taking advantage of the reader’s preconceived notions and (sub)conscious connections to the source material.
(Light spoilers ahead – although you cannot really spoil greek tragedies and this particular retelling follows the original quite closely).
I think making Medea a mother of two girls instead of two boys was a brilliant choice. The fact that their murder is motivated by compassion and pity for their future lives of docility and submissiveness makes for a more human and understandable Medea - one that relinquishes her god-like / vigilante status. The psychological portrait, however, does not override the political tone of Euripides’ tragedy. The feminist tones are fleshed out and Alexandra K. manages to provide an updated version of the conflict of the original.
On the negative side, there were many instances where the original text was evoked in a very literal way (for example, we learn that Medea was complicit in the killing of her brother, although in a much more indirect manner than in the play of Euripides). Since the original Medea is a larger-than-life character, the point-by-point reminder of the plot was not always fitting and it removed you from the small town sensibilities of this version. I think this adaptation could have benefitted from a more extreme departure from the ancient play.
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Όλα πάλιωσαν, ξέφτισαν απ’την πολλή τη χρήση
στα δυο σκίστηκα για να γεννήσω τα παιδιά
στα δυo για να γεννήσω τον άντρα που έγινες
μέσα μου μπήκες και μου ρίζωσες και βλάστησες
ήσουνα πιο παιδί μου απ’τα παιδιά μας
μες στο κορμί μου ζήσατε όλοι σας, πώς να μη μου γεράσει;
Ξεμάθετε να είστε ήσυχες – μάθετε να ζητάτε
να μη σας νοιάζει άμα σας πούνε άγριες κακές γυναίκες άβολες
κανείς δεν αγαπά στ’αλήθεια μιαν αόρατη γυναίκα
μα πρώτη η ίδια αυτή δεν αγαπά τον εαυτό της
πώς να την αγαπήσουν οι άλλοι πρώτα;