With “Medea’s Children”, renowned director Milo Rau takes a new, deep look at the role of children in theatre. A real criminal case is the starting point: the case of a mother who, in total despair, decides to kill her children and take her own life - but she survives. This modern tragedy is interweaved with the classical tragedy “Medea”, the most infamous case of relationship conflict and infanticide in Western literature.
A group of children take this bloody crime case and the perhaps darkest origin narrative of European culture as an opportunity to reflect on themselves: on family history, first love and first encounters with death, on desires for the future and fears of the end of the world that haunts us all.
“Medea’s Children”: the absurd and blood-drenched tragedies of adult life seen through the eyes of children – a small history of theatre and a school of life as cruel as it is poetic.
Milo Rau transforms cruelty and innocence into a poetic reflection on human fragility.
Cast: Peter Seynaeve / Lien Wildemeersch, Anna Matthys / Juliette Debackere, Emma Van de Casteele / Ella Brennan, Jade Versluys / Bernice Van Walleghem, Gabriël El Houari / Aiko Benaouisse, Sanne De Waele / Helena Van de Casteele, Vik Neirinck / Elias Maes
Producers: NTGent
Co-producers: Wiener Festwochen, La Biennale de Venezia, ITA - Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Tandem - Scène nationale (Arras Douai)
Performance in Dutch, with Romanian and English translation