The Coronet Theatre is the home of exceptional international arts in a re-imagined and restored Grade II listed theatre in London’s Notting Hill. Both its programme and the building’s restoration are curated by Artistic Director & CEO Anda Winters in collaboration with artists from across the globe.
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U R I P I D E S
MEDEA
Satoshi Miyagi, celebrated Artistic Director of Japan’s SPAC (Shizuoka Performing Arts Center), confronts the haunting legacy of empire with a spectacular contemporary reinterpretation of Euripides’ Medea, set in Japan’s late 19th-century Meiji era
Through breath-taking visual symbolism, traditional music, and a form-defying performance, tradition and experimentation are fused in a bold postcolonial feminist retelling of Euripides’ classic In Miyagi’s signature style, each character is played by two performers: a “speaker,” here played by men, and a “ mover, ” played by women, using movement rooted in kabuki technique
Medea is the shocking story of a woman who, betrayed and cast aside by her treacherous lover, takes hideous revenge by murdering the children they both love
During the male-dominated Meiji era imperial ambition masked itself as modernisation. Male diners at a traditional restaurant summon female waitresses for entertainment, and the tragic tale of Medea unfolds as a play-within-a-play Miyagi uses Euripides’ tragedy to create a searing critique of nationalism, gendered oppression, and colonial violence
This stunning and internationally acclaimed production, which has travelled to 20 cities and 11 countries, provides a fresh, dynamic take on this timeless story of grief, betrayal, and vengeance.
Photo:Takuma Uchida
Photo:Takuma Uchida
SATOSHI MIYAGI:
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Once I read Medea, it left me with the question: why the mother, Medea, killed her son to take a revengeful act against her husband Jason
Generally, it is believed that mothers can never kill their children and they should grieve for their dead child much more than fathers do But Medea, who is mercilessly deserted by Jason, thinks she can take revenge on her husband by murdering their son I tried to understand what moves Medea to the lethal act, and got an idea by paying attention to the patriarchy implied in the text of Medea. The Creons had no son to succeed to the family Therefore, by marrying the princess, Jason is taken into the Creon family as a supposed heir
Medea might not have got the idea to kill her own child, and never have done it, if the child were not a son but a daughter. It is possible that she wanted to destroy the patriarchal system that shuts women out from society and exclusively allows men to inherit the control over family, society, history and power
The patriarchal system, established in ancient Greece, gradually but overwhelmingly swayed all over the world. Now, mankind has come to face a crucial stage: he is about to kill his mother, the Earth He can survive when he kills his son, who is just murdering his mother Medea, a mother who finally chooses to kill her son, tells a story about a mother trying to stop her son from making the fatal mistake: killing his own mother.
Satoshi Miyagi is the General Artistic Director of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC). Miyagi studied theory of drama at the University of Tokyo. Founded the Ku Na’uka Theatre Company in 1990. Miyagi engages in various performance activities internationally and is highly acclaimed both in Japan and abroad for his directorial work combining contemporary textual interpretations with the physical techniques and styles of Asian theatre. He was appointed Artistic Director of SPAC in April 2007.
His Antigone was performed in the Cour d’honneur du Palais des papes in 2017 as the opening work of the Festival d’Avignon. It was the first time in the festival’s history for a work from Asia to be selected as the opening work Other representative works include Medea, Mahabharata and Peer Gynt.
Miyagi received the French honor of “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” from the French Ministry of Culture in April, 2019. In 2023, he received the Japan Foundation Awards.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
Photo:Takuma Uchida
Photo:Takuma Uchida
IN REHEARSAL
Photos: Hirao Mashashi
LEENALCHI
Fri 04 & Sat 05 July
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THE CORONET THEATRE TEAM
Artistic Director & CEO
Anda Winters
General Manager
Andy McDonald
Finance Manager
Andrew Michel
Company & Production Coordinator
Emma Smith
Producer
Daphne Seale
Associate Producer
Cathy Lewis
Consultant Producer
Hetty Shand
Marketing Manager (Freelance)
Elliot Hall
PR Consultant
Sharon Kean
Poetry Coordinator
Marion Manning
Audience Experience Manager
Giudi Di Gesaro
Theatre Administrator / PA to the
Artistic Director
Emma Zetterberg
Producing & Marketing Assistant
Esme Bishop
Duty Managers
Francesca Battinieri, Joanna
Papanastassiou, Hazel Townsend, Aylin Rodoplu
Box Office Assistant
Ivana Dieli
Front of House Staff
Maria Lisberg-Jonasson, Andreane
Rellou, Sua Tsubokura-Aguiriano, Kelsey Moebius, Thea Gavanski, Eugénie Bakker, Emma Laird-Craig, Scarlett Stitt, Daniel Timoney, Dominika Jarečná, Hamza Mullick, Stefanie Bruckner, Juliet Dempsey, Katrina Foster, Stephanie
