Medea, a performance history: Black Sea & Empire

In 2016 the University of Oxford’s Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (the APGRD) published Medea, a performance history - an open access, interactive/multimedia ebook on the production history of Euripides’ Medea, the ancient Greek tragedy about a mother who, betrayed by her husband, exacts revenge by killing her children. First performed nearly 2,500 years ago, and continually reinvented since, Medea remains the most controversial yet alluring female role in the history of theatre worldwide.

Now, Medea, a performance history: Black Sea & Empire offers two related chapters from the ebook in order to provide a quicker-to-download, bitesize instalment. The first chapter, Black Sea, explores Medea’s roots and backstory, and how these have been used in the theatre to challenge perceptions of her as an infamous child-killer; the second chapter, Empire, looks at the ways in which Medea’s story has been read as part of Europe's colonial history, and how Medea’s position as an exiled immigrant has made her a symbol of ethnic persecution and racial oppression.

The APGRD’s interactive/multimedia ebooks draw on a unique collection of archival material and research at the APGRD and beyond, and use images, film, unique interviews and digital objects to tell the story of a play that has inspired countless interpretations onstage and onscreen, in dance, drama, and opera, across the globe from antiquity to the present day.