Medea – Ivan Vazov National Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria

Cheek by Jowl do what they do best as director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod thrust us into the heart of Euripides’ great tragedy with an intelligent and immersive in-the-round production which takes the challenges of an ancient past and reimagines them in the here and now, with this production performed in Bulgarian, translated from the Greek by Dorothea Tabaskova, and with English surtitles, translated from the Greek by Lucinda Dawkins.

Jason (Velislav Pavlov) is set to marry the daughter of Creon, King of Corinth (Valentin Ganev), yet the talk of the Chorus (Radena Valkanova, Joreta Nikolova, Stafania Koleva, Elena Ivanova, Nadya Keranova, Ana Papadopolu)  is less about this occasion and more in concern to Jason’s ex-wife, Medea (Radina Kardzhilova) who is present from the off with her confidante (Vyara Tabakova). If there’s anything worse than a spurned partner, then it has to be one who’s renowned for supernatural sorcery and dismembering her own brother to help her then suitor and subsequent husband steal the infamous golden fleece.

With the threat of banishment hanging over her, the offer of safe passage by Aegon (Asen Dankov) and the potential for the children (Nikola Sarzhev – double as Boris Petrishki, Peter Sardzhev – double as Boyan Chelebiev) and their tutor (Yavor Valkanov) to remain secure suggests that maybe things are looking up for her after all.

The question is whether Creon’s unusually heartfelt moral decision to allow her one final day to spend with her children will prove to be to everyone’s detriment, and with the arrival of a news bearer (Stelian Radev) we are about to find out the price of a woman scorned.

Donnellan has retained the essence of the original whilst modernising the style and tone in the tragic tale of a woman abandoned for effectively a better offer, which plays out in so many contexts from  broken  marriages to keeping up with the Joneses as to what it means to belong amid a sense of abandonment which is particularly heartfelt when we look at global conflicts and the refugee crises.

And if we were not aware of any of this then we are now as with standing room only for one hundred people on the main stage, the play unfolds and unravels in and around us as we become as much part of the performance as well as its voyeurs, a timely comment too perhaps on modern media.

Ormerod’s staging and costumes are minimal and simple. A small podium offers some kind of altar to better days but later transforms into a pyre and tomb. The action is among us as power-driven, dark-suited men appear to be the authority whilst the chattering Chorus of which we become part suggests otherwise and that behind every great man there is a wiser and stronger woman.

The cast are exceptional, and all perform strongly. Ganev is outstanding as Creon whose cold detachment conveys his arrogance and contempt for Medea whilst hinting at his underlying fear of her. Dankov brings a positive energy to Aegon who offers the only positive glimmer of hope and humanity whilst Pavlov is suitably selfish and self-interested as Jason whose punishment in a perverse way fits the crime.

Kardzhilova unsurprisingly steals the show amongst everything else with an emotional and heartfelt performance that takes us into the inner psyche of a woman who has given literally everything for her man in the name of love only to have it all pulled from under her when a better offer apparently appears. It can be difficult to appreciate the extreme behaviours befitting of ancient cultures and customs when viewed through a modern lens but Donnellan’s masterful direction and Kardzhilova’s towering performance prove the perfect riposte to that Pandora’s box.

Reviewer: Mark Davoren

Reviewed: 26^th November 2025

North West End UK Rating: