Preview: Medusa, Bristol Old Vic

“We wanted to continue the story in a way that reflected the events in Minotaur more closely than the Greek myth does. Plus we wanted to put another fantastic monster on stage.”

Bristol writer/director Toby Hulse is explaining the genesis of Medusa, the show he has created with writer Adam Peck and dozens of young people, which forms a sequel to the duo’s Minotaur. 

The latter, staged at Bristol Old Vic last year, faithfully followed the familiar Theseus myth, up to the hero’s tragic yet life-defining return to Athens after slaying the Minotaur. Because Theseus hasn’t changed his ship’s sails from black to white his father believes him dead, and kills himself: thus, in a single moment Theseus loses his father and gains a kingdom. 

Now Toby, Adam and children from several Bridgwater schools have created a follow-up with Theseus’ ongoing adventures – and featuring one very distinctive monster from elsewhere in the Ancient Greek canon.

King Theseus has only one desire: a son to inherit the throne, but every child born to him perishes after only a few hours. The women in his life watch on, powerless to provide him with the thing he wants most. Despair leads Theseus to seek terrifying answers, and a truth which will bring him eye-to-eye with the most hideous creature in the ancient world. Can he face his fears and break the curse?

The choice of the monster Medusa came from the duo’s conversations with the young people of Bridgwater. Over 20 schools worked with workshop leaders to create an artistic response to Minotaur, and it was these responses that have shaped Medusa. 

“Common themes started to emerge from listening to these young people,” Toby explains. “They wanted to know what happened to Theseus, they were interested in the female characters in the story, they felt angry about the treatment of women in the myths – and they wanted more monsters. Medusa addresses all of these themes, and more.”

Does the new show have a particular setting in time and place, or remain rooted in the Ancient Greek world? “One of the joys of working with stories such as these is that they live in fantastical worlds. We are not tied to historical accuracy – there never was a Medusa (or at least I hope not) – so we are free to create whatever world best suits the story.” Designer Max Johns has created a world “somewhere between our favourite science-fiction films and the 1940s”, while Medusa herself is influenced by H.R. Giger’s designs for the Alien films.

The Bridgwater students composed their own theatrical responses to Minotaur. “Adam and I saw a lot of plays created and performed by young people. This meant that their ideas were simultaneously very free – theatre is a work of imagination, you can pretend anything – but also very practical, in that they had already considered how to achieve these wild flights of their imagination on stage.

“The play format in which they were presenting their thoughts also meant that they weren’t overburdened with explanation – a good idea performed on stage is so often more expressive and comprehensible than one written on paper.” 

Are the Greek myths – with their heroism, mystery, and a sense of far away and long ago – particularly ripe for dramatic interpretation? “Any story that has been told and retold for as many centuries, and by as many different people, as the Greek myths have will not only be finely crafted, but will also reflect the concerns and questions of all human beings. These stories have a fantastic universality in their struggles and triumph, and are the bedrock of so many stories and works of art that followed.

“And the way that they play with our sense of good and evil is fascinating – stories that at first sight seem to have very clear ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’ very quickly become more morally complex and refuse to provide us with simple answers. Theatre is very good at asking moral questions of its audiences in the form of thrilling stories, in exactly the same way as these myths do. No wonder theatre makers return to the Greek myths time and time again.”

Medusa Tuesday, July 7 to Saturday, July 11, Bristol Old Vic Studio. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk/medusa.html

Pics: Paul Blakemore