Medea’s Performance History, with Fiona Macintosh

Abstract

Shivaike Shah talks to Professor Fiona Macintosh from the University of Oxford, director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, an online research project that has digitised and made accessible thousands of sources relating to classical drama and performance. Shivaike and Fiona talk about the APGRD’s work, and in particular, the interactive e-book Medea: A Performance History, which was published in 2016. They then discuss how our understanding of Medea has changed over time, and in particular, how specific translations and performances of the play have been used time and again to illustrate contemporary political debates.

The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama can be found here.

Bibliography

Open-source

Stephe Harrop, ‘Introduction to… the tragic body’, APGRD

Lucy Jackson, ‘Introduction to… Ancient Greek Theatre’, APGRD

Fiona Macintosh, ‘Museums, Archives, and Collecting’, in D. Wiles & C. Dymkowski (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Theatre History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 267-280

Fiona Macintosh with Claire Kenward & Tom Wrobel, Medea: A Performance History, APGRD (2016)

Shivaike Shah & Fran Amewudah-Rivers, ‘Medea: A Mirror for the 21st Century’, APGRD blog (2020)

Chris Vervain, ‘Medea Without the Men: Mask Theatre Practice’, APGRD blog (2018)

Transcript

You can find a full transcript of the episode here.