- Inspirations -
When working on Medeus I originally wanted to keep all my influence of the piece from Medea, trying to reject other media as much as I can. Doing that felt very limiting. When I allowed myself to look more beyond the facts in the play, exploring the parallels between the play and the new world, things developed in ways I didn’t always expect. I did research into different subjects and consepts from history to popular media, with the goal to colour and inform the world. Though not always apparent in the performance it was food for the body.
Stonewall, gay rights, and a crisis
Being a queer body in New York during the late 70s and early 80s ment being there for the a change in LGBT+ rights, but also being there for the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Being a queer person in the middle of this time where being gay became more legal, but also more dangerous as if you were more promiscuous, or plain unlucky, you could catch the gay cancer.
Thought not in the text, I did play with a part of the text being about this unnamed gay cancer but ended up leaving it out, allowing to fuel the subtext instead.
The Fires of the South-Bronx
Figuring out what type life Jason and Medeus would live together and what they did in the Corinthian gang was fueled by the historical burning of the south-Bronx. The south-Bronx in the 70s experienced a lot of fires dislocating around 80% of the people living there. Later it was revealed to be done by landlords cashing in on the insurance money.
After learning about this I made Medeus and Jason the heads of an operation regarding this. Burning buildings owned by Creon for him to collect the insurance money, building an empire on fraud and controlling the housing of the district. Connecting this to Medeus magical powers I gave him pyrogenisis as a method of committing these crimes without getting caught.
Black hands of a witch
I have always enjoyed seeing how magic has been done in various different series, and one trope that I always found very fascinating was the “dark hand” of dark magic. As I allowed Medeus to play with magic and forming the connection to whatever magical source laid in him, I wanted there to be a certain consequence for using magic. In Star Vs the Forces of Evil, a Disney animated series, one of the queens of the show was know for doing evil magics, thus gaining hands that were tainted black and purple. Her hands where black while gradually going upwards you’d see purple. In WandaVision Agatha Harkness, the villain of the show, is also shown to have dark fingers when using a more evil type og magic. Later in the show we see Wanda also appearing with similar hands as she is starting to do the same evil magic.
The dark hands felt like a natural way to do it for this piece, as it doubled as soot from being in a fire. Making the act of magic have a physically consequence is something that if I am to make this solo-piece into full play.
- Music -
I am not a person that uses a lot of music when doing creative work but as I started to look how to allow different mediums affect my piece I thought that I’d give making a character playlist a go. Some songs have more influence that other together in the playlist they creative the journey of Medeus in the larger context of his life. Three keywords I kept in mind while making the playlist was: love, rage, and stillness.
Love and rage being sogns connecting Medeus’ need for love and connection and how much it hurts after. Stillness is the best way I could describe his feelings of apathy or depression though his life. There are moments where finding a still was easier than facing the reality of his life, working as a self-defense mechanism.
The Blue Neighbourhood album by Troye Sivan helt a large influence in shaping the imagery of Medeus relationship to Jason. From the music video trilogy to the feeling and lyrics of his songs. The tracks that carried the main influence were: BITE, YOUTH and SUBRUBIA
BITE
Kiss me on the mouth and set me free
Sing me like a choir
I can be the subject of your dreams
Your sickening desire
Don't you wanna see a man up close?
A phoenix in the fire
Bite to me was about the liberation promised by being with Jason. Representing the moment when Medeus fully got to realize his love physically for Jason, being a more innocent country boy being met with an experienced city man.
The bite being a type of push and pull of the danger of falling in love with Jason, but also the damage that Medeus is naturally able to cause.
SUBURBIA
The sun sets longer
Where I am from
Where dreams go to die
While having fun
The boys fix their cars and
Girls eat it up
Loving's so good when
Love is young
Yeah, there's so much history in these streets
And mama's good eats
Oh Wonder on repeat
There's so much history in my head
The people I've left
The ones that I've kept
Suburbia to me is the song of nostalgia. Missing the lost life of his home, and a time before the consequence of his actions stared to hit him. The song in the story of Medeus comes after learning that Jason is marring someone else. Causing him to lock himself in his home, wandering though memories of what he misses, going though images of the things he sacrefised and for what.
YOUTH
What if, what if we run away?
What if, what if we left today?
What if we said goodbye to safe and sound?
And what if, what if we're hard to find?
What if, what if we lost our minds?
What if we let them fall behind and they're never found?
And when the lights start flashing like a photobooth
And the stars exploding, we’ll be fireproof
My youth, my youth is yours
Trippin' on skies, sippin' waterfalls
My youth, my youth is yours
Runaway now and forevermore
My youth, my youth is yours
A truth so loud you can't ignore
My youth, my youth, my youth
My youth is yours
This song love song became the promise Medeus made to Jason. Promising his youth, giving away the life he lived before meeting him, running away. The if only in the beginning of the monolog is talking about this moment the song brings to life, this is the lightness of a choice done blinded by love.
The song feels like a sunny car ride during the honeymoon fase of a relationship. Easy, gliding and warm.
ANGRY TOO - Lola Blanc
Calm down girl, why you so mad?
Why's your heart gone rotten?
It's all good girl, why you upset?
Guess they have forgotten what they did
And does it get your blood boilin' and does it make you see red?
And do you wanna destroy it?
Does it get in your head?
'Cause it gets my blood boiling and I’m coming unglued
It would eat you like poison if you knew what I knew
You would be angry, you would be angry
You would be angry, you would be angry too
If I didn’t go with screaming and fires as the introductory soundscape to the piece I would have gone with this song starting from the bridge.
This song to me sounds like flames and fire. It answered the question of why am I doing this? You would be angry too. This was not just an act of revenge but an act of justice.
Medea - Soundwalk collective
This piece is a gorgeous and disturbing soundscape, mixed audio journey, were we here Medea talking about her life and her thoughts.
The Medea in this piece is talking from a more godly perspective, referring to the golden blood of gods and having the mind of a God. Assisting the creation of the godly and supernatural self that exits within Medeus.