MEDEA

Euripides

MEDEA

A tragedy in 1 part

Directed by Reinis Suhanovs

Set and costume designer - Monika Korpa, assistant Justīne Jasjukeviča

Choreographer - Linda Mīļā

Lighting designer - Oskars Pauliņš

Composer - Jēkabs Nīmanis

Text editor, author of the prologue - Ilmārs Zvirgzds

Cast: Māra Mennika, Anna Nele Āboliņa, Kārlis Freimanis, Rihards Jakovels, Artis Jančevskis, Mārtiņš Liepa, Elizabete Milta, Sandis Runge, Diāna Krista Stafecka.

I understand how terrible my deed is,

but passion is stronger than my mind -

it drags mortals into every crime.

/Euripides, Medea/

Director Reinis Suhanovs takes the more than 2,000-year-old myth about a woman who has left everything - her homeland and her home - to build the temple of their shared life together with her husband, and explores it by posing difficult and existential questions:

“What should be done with a burning, uncontrollable passion that drags the family temple along with it? Should the flame be kept under control if you yourself are burning? Does the betrayed Medea have the right, in her hurt, to tear down what has been built in the most horrifying way, down to the foundations?”

The audience can expect a unraveling of complex ethical questions, but in this darkness of confusion and illusion, as in every true tragedy, catharsis also offers a way out. “Time is so cruel, so I see no contradiction in speaking about cruelty in theatre as well,” says Reinis Suhanovs.

The production is also special as a creative dialogue between the master of scenography, Andris Freibergs (1938-2022), a lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Art, and his students - Reinis Suhanovs and Monika Korpa.

The production is being created in the 2025/2026 season of Valmiera Theatre with the support of the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation. As this powerful collaboration continues, four new productions are being created in the new season.

So far, nine new productions have already reached audiences with the support of the foundation. Of these, five were in the 2024/2025 season: Romeo and Juliet (directed by Inese Mičule), Blue (directed by Māra Ķimele), Sprīdītis (directed by Reinis Suhanovs), Four White Shirts (directed by Jānis Znotiņš), and The Magic Mountain (directed by Toms Treinis).

The friendship between the theatre and the foundation began in the 2023/2024 season, the theatre’s centenary, when four classic works of Latvian drama were staged: Valmiera Boys (directed by Jānis Znotiņš), Widow’s Son (directed by Viesturs Roziņš), as well as the specially acclaimed Joseph and His Brothers (directed by Inese Mičule) and The Prodigal Son (directed by Reinis Suhanovs).