Ancient Greek Acting: Casting Euripides' Medea

Introduction: The Challenge of Staging Medea

Euripides' tragedy of Medea is a challenging play to stage regardless of circumstances, given that it depicts the horrible murder of two innocent children, even though this action takes place off-stage. However, the original production was perhaps even more difficult to stage than a contemporary production, given that only three actors were used to cast the major speaking roles. The following casting breakdown would likely represent the ideal distribution of the main roles for both logistical and dramatic purposes:

Actor 1: Nurse, Aegeus, Messenger

Medea's Exclusive Role and Characterization

Actor 2: Tutor, Creon, Jason, Children

Actor 3: Medea

Medea's role is so dominant that the part must be given exclusively to one actor. This decision heightens the drama and conveys the specialness as well as the alienation of the character, ensuring her distinctiveness through dedicated performance. One of the reasons Medea was such a horrifying figure to the Greeks was that she was a barbarian woman married to a Greek king, and thus a potential witch that could not be trusted. On the other hand, however, she was still a wronged woman, abandoned by her husband and the father of her children after she helped him win the Golden Fleece.

Actor One: Impartial Voices and Reason

Regardless of one's opinion of her actions, Medea is very clearly "different" from the other characters in the play. Having a sole, solitary actor play Medea is one way to highlight this fundamental difference. The character's isolation as a foreign outsider becomes visually and performatively reinforced when no other actor shares her stage identity. This casting choice transforms a practical necessity into a dramatic asset, making Medea's alienation literal and unmistakable to the audience.

The roles played by Actor One represent the more impartial, observational characters in the drama, who are occasionally sympathetic to Medea's plight. These characters function as voices of reason within the play's emotional chaos. The Tutor, for example, first reveals what Jason intends to do with his former wife—cast her out with her children. Aegeus is the barren king of Athens who agrees to allow Medea into the confines of the city walls if she can make him fertile again. The Messenger, although horrified by what he has witnessed, merely relates the horrible death of Jason's bride at the hands of Medea without judgment or active participation in the conflict.

Actor Two: Emotional Antagonists

All of these characters are somewhat removed from the emotional crux of the drama and are not intimately involved in the family tragedy. They serve primarily as expository devices, delivering information that propels the plot forward while maintaining emotional distance from the central conflict. By grouping these roles under a single actor, their function as neutral observers becomes unified and clear to the audience.

In contrast, the roles played by Actor Two are all emotionally driven characters antagonistic to Medea. Jason, Medea's former husband, betrays her by marrying another younger woman, who also suits his political needs as king. His abandonment of Medea is not merely practical but deeply personal, striking at her identity and worth. Creon rebukes Medea, literally rubbing salt into her emotional wounds, and he pays a heavy price for doing so: he dies while trying to save his daughter from the poisoned robes Medea gives to the girl as a gift.

The Tutor, while he cares for Medea, is also an emotionally involved character in the drama and, like Jason, has a connection to the children Medea eventually destroys. The roles played by Actor Two are all antagonistic to Medea's attempts to avenge herself and preserve her dignity. They represent active opposition rather than passive observation, making them dramatically distinct from Actor One's impartial figures.