Theater’s Fiercest Female: New company launches with MEDEA

Humble Materials, a new theater company in residence at Philly PACK, will produce an original adaptation of MEDEA, opening February 25.  

“Medea is one of the fiercest female characters in literature,” says cocreator Jessica Noel. “The original Euripides text portrays her as a powerful witch who gets revenge on her cheating husband. Humble Materials wants to dive deeper into her brain and hear all the inner-monologue voices of her thought-process. Each chorus member is assigned a different part of Medea’s personality.  The result is a script that shows Medea’s humanity and relatability.” .  

The adaptation of MEDEA is co-created by Noel with Philadelphia-based playwright Monica Flory. A choreographer and operator of Philly PACK, Noel provides the movement design and stars as Medea. Anna Betteridge, Amy Henderson, Lauren Leonard, Chachi Perez, and Lisa Vaccarelli round out the cast as the Greek Chorus. Flory directs. Original music score by Jessica Noel, John Noel and Matt Subits. Production design by Kat Caro.  

Noel thinks this is an ideal time for a look at Medea’s story. “Medea is a story of a woman pushed over the edge into complete brokenness,” she says. “We  love her because she takes us over the cliff of sanity, and the audience can “go there” without actually “going there”. That’s what Greek tragedies are for! We’ve all been through a lot these past couple years, and it honestly feels good to watch someone’s story unfold and crumble. It’s cathartic.”  

Humble Materials is a new physical-theater collective in residence at Philly PACK with a commitment to producing small-budget, large-impact, femme-centric work.  Medea will run on Feb 25 and 26 and March 4 and 5 at 8PM at Philly PACK garage theater in Pennsport, Philadelphia.

[Philly PACK, 233 Federal Street] February 25-March 5, 2022; phillypack.org

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