In his “Medea,” the Swiss director gives voice to children, who discuss their families, their passions, and share their initial reflections on death as it touches them from all around.
Japanese Aikido master Hiroshi Tada wrote in his memoir about the 1945 American bombing of Tokyo seen through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy who slept in school to keep an eye on possible fires. Tada uses little emphasis and shows little emotion in his stories – the horror of war is in the eye of the reader, rather than in the simple words of a teenager. This will also be Milo Rau’s lesson in Medea’s Children. The classical character of Medea has little weight on Rau’s interpretation, which is instead based on the voices of kids discussing their families, their passion, and, tentatively, death. Milo Rau was born in Bern, Switzerland, and educated in Paris, Zurich, and Berlin. A journalist, playwright, theatre director, and filmmaker, he founded theatre and film production company International Institute of Political Murder in 2007. His Ghent Manifesto of 2018 explains how “It’s not just about portraying the world anymore. It’s about changing it. The aim is not to depict the real, but to make the representation itself real.” A quest for simplicity and social commitment: “at least one production per season must be rehearsed or performed in a war zone, an attempt to bring cultural infrastructure to where it’s needed most.” Forsaking the myth of the director: “The authorship is entirely up to those involved in the rehearsals and the performance, whatever their function may be – and to no one else.”
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