Simon Stone rewrites Euripides’s Medea as a taut, edge-of-your-seat play, finding a contemporary and relatable reality for his masterful modern-day retelling of an average family’s darkest days.

After involuntary confinement in a psychiatric hospital, Anna, once a successful doctor, is determined to put things right. Willing to forgive her husband’s affair with a younger woman, she wants a fresh start with him and their children. But he has different plans. Sidelined and in danger of losing everything, she is driven into a corner and sees only one way out.

Euripides’ controversial icon is reborn in visionary director Simon Stone’s (Yerma) stunning contemporary rewrite. Rose Byrne (Damages, Bridesmaids, You Can’t Take It with You) and Bobby Cannavale (The Lifespan of a Fact, The Hairy Ape, The Motherf**ker with the Hat) face off as a husband and wife in the tumultuous throes of an unraveling marriage. Transposing the devastation of Greek tragedy to a modern American home, Stone’s stripped-bare staging throws the couple’s every raw emotion into stark relief, from jealousy to passion, humor to despair. Who will pay the price?

时长155分钟，含休息
By Simon Stone
based on Anton Chekhov
Directed by Simon Stone
Theater Basel
Directed by SIMON STONE
Stage LIZZIE CLACHAN
Costumes MEL PAGE
Music STEFAN GREGORY
Lighting design CORNELIUS HUNZIKER
Dramaturgy CONSTANZE KARGL
Olga BARBARA HORVATH
Masha FRANZISKA HACKL
Irina LILIANE AMUAT
Andrey NICOLA MASTROBERARDINO
Natasha CATHRIN STÖRMER
Theodor MICHAEL WÄCHTER
Alexander ELIAS EILINGHOFF
Viktor SIMON ZAGERMANN
Nikolai MAX ROTHBART
Roman ROLAND KOCH
Herbert FLORIAN VON MANTEUFFEL
A glasshouse straight from the wish list of affluent children: This is where director Simon Stone sets Chekhov’s “Three Sisters”. A modern ambience, accessible from all sides, thanks to a revolving stage. Only for seconds, if that, does the façade block the audience’s view of arguments and sex and boozing sessions – because that’s what goes on in this most contemporary Chekhov adaptation the theatre has seen for a long time. Stone completely re-wrote the dialogue and fitted his characters with a modern-day skin, while retaining Chekhov’s story and conflict constellation, his tragicomedy, melancholy, longing and pain. The excellent Basel acting company enhances the triviality of events surrounding Irina’s birthday party by also acting out the phoniness of the daily soap set in the sisters’ holiday home. Triviality is a thin, transparent protective cover. Underneath, the characters wear nothing but naked despair. And the scars of their fruitless search for happiness.