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The bass reverb shakes every seat in the house…
It’s Medea’s pain we are feeling. It’s Medea’s rage.
The shaking sound so over powers that all other senses are momentarily lost.
Emcee (and playwright) Luis Quintero told us from the gitgo —and Euripides before him—that we were going to feel her pain, so it’s not a total surprise.
Nonetheless, it sure is a moment of WOW!
Or, as Chorus would put it—
Woe! Woah!
In the first lines of this Hip-Hopera re-staging of the classic, our Emcee rhymes and raps that this art through articulation depends on our participation. It doesn’t take convincing. Like children who’ve heard a Dr. Suess book read to them over and over, we eagerly jump in the periodic call and response re-verse of Euripides classic tale to do our part.
There is a guitar, a bass, a beatboxer but with no set to speak of, the Emcee/Chorus Leader sets the stage with rapping rhymes coming fast like a bullet train. The conceit of using joyful rhyme to convey pure tragedy is only the beginning of the creativity explosion on stage, in this reviewer’s opinion. The script/score is super-charged with anachronistic slang that keeps us smiling throughout.
Word play saturates— when the double entendre breaks out into triple entendres we revel at the cleverness—
…When I first met you, I offered you a pomegranate
But then you went and took my palms for granted
So I slapped your sentence on a stone
So you could take my palms for granite…
It’s no small task for actors to break through the playful banter of the narrator to let us see and feel the drama at the tragedy’s core. You too will likely feel instantly that actress Sarin Monae West is more than up to the task when she first strides in from behind us. No matter how flip her rhyme, we never lose touch with the tornado tension she has within.
Likewise, Stephen Michael Spencer as Jason seems to need only two words— “Hey Babe” —for us to know what all her fuss is about. She is gravitas and he is helium gas. As the action unfolds the particulars of Jason’s multi-betrayals almost become academic footnotes. With the aid of the bass, her rage rocks the house quite literally.
And, rounding out the cast with magnetism, actor Jacob Ming-Trent playing multiple roles is especially adept at teasing out a playful vibe from the Greek Chorus audience when it is our turn.
Who knew fratricide and filicide could be so much fun!
You don’t have to be a classics lover or classics literate to love this play. You also don’t need to be hip-hop attuned. If the name Euripides triggers pictures of armless Greek antiquity statues in your mind’s eye, do instead know that live theater doesn’t get more live than this.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
CAST:
Guitar | SIENA D'ADDARIO
Bass | MELISSA MAHONEY
Beatboxer | MARK MARTIN
Creon / Ageus / Messenger | JACOB MING-TRENT
Chorus Leader / Emcee | LUIS QUINTERO
Jason | STEPHEN MICHAEL SPENCER
Medea | SARIN MONAE WEST
CREATIVE TEAM:
Director | Nathan Winkelstein
Scenic Design | Emmie Finckel
Costume Design | Nicole Wee
Lighting Design | Cha See
Sound Design | Matt Otto
Music Director | Mark Martin
Movement Director | Tiffany Rachelle Stewart
Production Stage Manager | Janelle Caso
Assistant Stage Manager | Jessica Fornear
General Manager | Sherri Kotimsky
Production Manager | Gary Levinson
Press Representative | David Gersten & Associates
Key Art Design | Ligature Creative
Production Video | Bardo Arts/Alex Pearlman
Production Photography | Carol Rosegg
WHEN:
September 12 - October 13, 2024
WHERE:
THE SHEEN CENTER SHINER THEATRE
18 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
TICKETS:
$78+
For more information and tickets visit the Red Bull Theater website.
PHOTOS: Carol Rosegg
About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
