The flexible playing space at the 602-seater attracted Cooke: “It didn’t feel right to put the play behind a 19th-century proscenium arch, where actors and audience are in different rooms. The theatre has a constellation theme that was inspired by Burns’s night-time performances, as a young actor, at the ancient outdoor theatre of Epidaurus in Greece. The West End’s first new purpose-built theatre in 50 years, it is owned by producer Nica Burns and is part of a £300m regeneration of the area by Tottenham Court Road underground station. Okonedo said that she was both “really excited and a touch nervous” about the role and that she had been impressed by when she toured the space while it was under construction. So, I wondered if having one actor playing all the male characters as different versions of the same force might work.” In many ways, all the male characters are agents of these forces, attempting to pressure Medea, a powerful, unpredictable female foreigner, to conform to the status quo. “Jason has been pulled away from Medea by the patriarchal values of his society conformity to duty, order and control. “At its core, Medea is about the battle between archetypal male and female ideas of power,” explained Cooke. The production will use a translation from 1946 by the American poet Robinson Jeffers and all of the male roles will be played by one actor, Ben Daniels.
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