The Bi-College and Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) theater departments collaborated to premiere Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames’ Media/Medea on April 13 in Bryn Mawr’s very own Hepburn Theater. The show ran from April 13-16 at Bryn Mawr and April 20-22 at the Community College of Philadelphia, selling out all performances. It was directed by Raelle Myrick-Hodges and featured Bryn Mawr graduate Monet Debose in the titular role and former Bryn Mawr and CCP professor and award-winning actor Akeem Davis alongside Haverford, Bryn Mawr and CCP students.
Media/Medea is based on the classic Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides, which tells the story of Medea, a foreign princess who helps Jason (of the Argonauts) on his quest and betrayed her family for him. The pair marry and move to Corinth, where they raise their two sons. The play takes place some years later when their life together begins to crumble: Jason becomes engaged to the princess of Corinth and leaves Medea with the children. Medea is driven into a murderous rage, claiming the lives of Jason’s betrothed and her father, and eventually those of her own sons. Jason attempts to invoke the wrath of the gods, but Medea, the granddaughter of Helios, escapes unscathed by way of a dragon-drawn chariot.
As part of Greek Drama/Black Lives, a collaborative program between the Bi-Co and CCP which is sponsored by the classics and theater departments at Bryn Mawr, Ijames’ reimagining of the two-thousand-year-old Medea puts the story in a modern Black cultural context. It is steeped in pop culture; rather than a Greek princess and hero, Medea and Jason are famous screen actors. Instead of Corinthian women, the chorus is made up of teenaged Twitter users. And, perhaps most importantly, Medea’s children, who are usually only seen in the background, are brought to the forefront.
As main characters in Ijames’ version, the audience watches the story unfold from the sons’ perspectives. They are acutely aware of what is going on around them both in real life and online; they mourn their parents’ relationship, floating the idea of a “parent trap,” but it is always clear that, despite their worries about getting canceled by association, they have taken their mother’s side in the separation. Even as the internet sows the seeds of conflict within the family, the love that Medea has for her children and they for her is palpable. The focus placed upon the children throughout the story makes its ending all the more tragic.
Media/Medea is a commentary on human nature, the internet, and the interaction between the two. The central plot of the play remains largely the same. Despite the thousands of years of societal developments that took place between the Euripides’ and Ijames’ versions, the characters behave in the same ways.
On the other hand, though, the chorus barely resembles the one from the original Medea; rather than displaying concern for Medea and her children, this chorus spurs on and delights in the family’s downfall. Watching life through screens has desensitized them to suffering. How has the internet changed what it means to be human, and what has stayed constant?
