Grambling State University’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts showcased the thin line between adoration and hatred in the Greek play, Medea by Euripides. The play, directed by Dr. King David Godwin opened on Tuesday, in the Floyd L. Sandle Theatre in the Performing Arts Center.
This is the first Greek play that the department has put on in four years and it was well worth the wait. Medea is the ideal play that illustrates how vengeance, hatred and lack of compassion can lead to corruption in character and its effect on innocent bystanders said Godwin.
Medea is the story of a woman who faces the ultimate betrayal when her husband leaves her and her two children for a younger women named Glauce. Medea has given up her family, protected and even killed for her husband, Jason, yet he discards her like she is no more than trash.
Contrary to popular belief, however, she doesn’t get back at him by taking his money or the kids, or setting his worldly possessions on fire in an expensive automobile. That’s the easy way out. Medea wants her estranged husband, to suffer just as much as she has and she will use or say anything to make sure this comes true.
“We all have ways to get even, but Medea is a little dramatic. She’s defiantly a women scorned” , said President Pogue.
The last knife in Medea’s heart is when she and the children are forced into exile by Creon, the king of Corinth, for speaking ill of him and his daughter. Jason assures Medea that she brought this on her self , and that he is marrying the princess so he and his kids can be better off.
Furious by Jason’s lack of compassion and selfish reasoning, Medea considers killing Creon, Glauce and even her two children. Tiana S. Alexander who plays Medea, the play says that “Even though men may do us wrong women can still come out on top.”
The question was up in the air to audience members when asked who was at fault in this dying relationship. Brenton Douglas, a sophomore studying psychology, believes Medea is at fault.
“Medea blew everything out of proportion. Jason was trying to help them out and she was focused on the wrong thing.”
Can a mother’s love for her children help her overcome the need for revenge or is betrayal to big a pain to endure alone ? You be the judge, see the play, which is running through Friday.