When it comes to Friggieri's language, what would you say are the most striking aspects of his translation?
I believe that Prof. Friggieri manages to smoothly transpose Euripides' original into the Maltese language in an effortless and fluid manner. We were particularly struck by the minute attention to detail and vocabulary, and I have to say that on more than one occasion our artistic process was a linguistically oriented one too - as we came across infinite lexical gems hidden away in the unfortunately under-used Maltese day-to-day contemporary vocabulary. The strength of most Maltese phonetic sounds add that extra spice, vigour and passion to the tale, which at the end of the day is a whirlwind of highly emotive scenes leading to a violent and heart-wrenching climax.

The themes of the play are obviously universal. But perceptions of Medea's character have changed over time. In a similar way that perceptions towards Shylock in Merchant of Venice have changed (he has moved from a farcical character to one imbued with tragic dignity), Medea is now seen by many as a proto-feminist icon, although many scholars believe that this is an implausible interpretation in light of Euripides' historical context. Since Du are assertively 'all-female', do you think Medea is amenable to your 'mission statement' as a group? Do you think that the gender issues that could possibly be extrapolated from Euripides' text are more important, in the end, than the universal themes?
I think that Medea has often been too conveniently tagged as a proto-feminist figure. I can understand why feminists see her as a supreme example that reflects their cause, but we were very adamant from the beginning, that our Medea was not a woman who stood for what is feminist, but a woman who stood for what is human. I believe that in Euripides’ work Medea's gender only exacerbates, and not defines, her situation. She does, on more than one occasion in the play, invoke the fact that her being a woman is an added obstacle to her plight and at times she also uses her gender's right for respect from the opposing sex as a battle cry for vengeance. But stripped of its social make-up it's what lies at the core that interested us most. A human being so profoundly hurt that she is ready to seek desperate measures to attain a questionable, grotesque and vengeful retribution. We are 'assertively' female, but this term only extends itself to us being women and looking at our work from the perception closest to us: a feminine one. Personally, I believe that Euripides’ human universality supersedes the other themes in the play. We are women, and our protagonist is one too: but what we have worked on - and what we hope will be perceived by the audience - is founded upon common and familiar states of mind inherent to any human being, be they male or female.

Apart from being a sublime tragedy, Medea also has the potential to be an immensely satisfying potboiler of just-desserts that could rank with the best of Clint Eastwood/Charles Bronson/Quentin Tarantino violent revenge thrillers (although admittedly, Medea's final action might be too dark, however much you sympathise with the scorned protagonist). Considering the many paths the play could potentially take, how would you describe your attitude and approach towards it?
We've mainly tried to work on two things: approach a Greek play from a fresh perspective and one that avoids what most audience members (and actors) consider, and many times don't find so intriguing; such as the archetypal way of dealing with Greek drama (chest- beating, hair-tearing, god-invoking and the like). Secondly, we want to attain the aforementioned goal in a colourful, visual, high-energetic and humane way.

How does one prepare when staging a classic such as this one? Do you bring it down to earth by treating it as just another play or do you treat it with more gravity than you would usually?
A standard joke in our group is that with every new project I'm always claiming that our current one is the hardest so far and well, Medea has proved to be a head-scratcher on more than one occasion. The need for our creativity and ingenuity to constantly come up with fresh ways to deal with the play was not left wanting with this project. However, we try not to make a distinction in the way we treat a piece and how we carry out our process, depending on what we are working on because once we commit ourselves to it, it just eats us all up and we all become its slaves regardless of its nature. We are basically consumed by it for a chunk of six months or more. Moreover, I think that as actors we need to be versatile and flexible in as many theatrical dynamics possible and should therefore treat every genre with the same amount of respect, commitment, hard work and quality.

Since your Medea is going to be filtered through Euripides and then Friggieri, how do you hope to leave your own individual mark on the play?
I hope we manage to convey the play's core, its pulse, the people inhabiting it and the adversities they face in a valid and interesting way to what I deem an inquisitive and demanding contemporary audience. I hope we manage to imbue this 2000-plus year old story with what defines our work ethos: energy, synergy, colour and passion. But ultimately, I hope that we make people think and reflect and leave the theatre satisfied because they were both challenged and entertained, based on what they were looking for in the first place…and who knows, maybe a little bit more than they bargained for.

Tickets at €10 can be booked at St James Cavalier on 21223216/21223200 or
boxoffice@sjcav.org.
For the opening night there is a special offer for students, as tickets will be reduced to €8, while Camilleri wines will serve wine following the performance.