16 March 2021
On Friday the sixth form classicists gathered in the Amey Theatre for an after-school event, to watch the National Theatre’s recent production of Euripides’ Medea. Prior to this, Anthony Bracey OA ‘returned’ to school via Zoom to describe the original setting of the drama over 2400 years ago in Athens, just as the city was about to embark on a 30-year long war. We were encouraged to ponder whether the exiled, homeless Medea was perhaps a reflection of the homelessness that many rustic-dwelling Athenians might have felt having to leave their homes for the protection of the walls of Athens as the Spartans invaded. The production itself was grim and shocking, inducing a sort of helpless fascination that was entirely appropriate to the original drama.