The first premiere on the Main Stage of Ivan Vazov National Theatre for the season 2024/2025 will be the first ever production of MEDEA, created by the legendary theatre duo of the director Declan Donnellan and the designer Nick Ormerod, cofounders of Cheek by Jowl. This will be their first production on Euripides' text, for which a brand new, literary translation from Greek to English language was commissioned.
“The name Medea can conjure up the image of a screaming murderous monster from antiquity. But Euripides brings Medeas experience uncomfortably close to home. His Medea is a very real woman facing what to her seems an intolerable predicament. She fears she is facing total humiliation, which to her amounts to annihilation. Her solution is extreme but not unheard of in today's world. We think what she does is overly emotional and irrational, but in fact the appalling deed is the result of the application of strict logic. Maybe this is a timely warning to our world increasingly obsessed, as it is, with algorithms of efficiency and artificial intelligence, just to hang onto our common sense and ordinary decency at all costs. Logic is a good servant but a bad master.” - share the director Declan Donnellan and the set-designer Nick Ormerod.
Cheek by Jowl is the international theatre company of Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod. Its landmark productions, performed in more than 50 countries in the 44 years since the company was founded, have influenced the creation of theatre and the experience of audiences the world over. Actors including Adrian Lester, Tom Hiddleston, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Gwendoline Christie and Matthew Macfadyen all developed their talent working with Cheek by Jowl in their early careers. International recognition of Cheek by Jowl’s importance includes multiple Laurence Olivier Awards, Golden Lion of Venice for Lifetime Achievement, the Stanislavski International Prize to Declan Donnellan for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of World Theatre, and Orders of the British Empire for both Artistic Directors.
Learn more at nationaltheatre.bg
