Imagine yourself in the present. Imagine yourself with utmost honesty: surfing the edges of modernity, full of promising gadgets and yet utterly powerless. A Borg sensation sneaking up on you?

We’re not talking about your ability to surf the net and blog-ossip your life away. We’re talking about your power to exert positive change in the world. We’re talking about the inner sensation of being a somewhat passive observer –full of opinions indeed- in the middle of an unfolding drama, of the Greek kind no less.

Enter medEia, an unconventional modern interpretation of Greek tragedy Medea by trailblazing Amsterdam theatre tricksters Dood Paard (Dead Horse, ‘an inspired new voice in the contemporary European theatre scene’).

Keep in mind: this medEia is told in an achingly poetic and yet humorous multimedia style using interlaced images with song lyrics by groups ranging from the Beatles and the Doors to Joy Division, Madonna and Public Enemy.

Another great innovation in this re-telling of the classic tragedy involves the actors’ point of view which is that of the chorus (and technically, as medEia’s actor Oscar van Woensel remind us: ‘the chorus is not able to act. They can just describe what happens and what they think about it, but they can’t do anything. This is a metaphor for us, being citizens of Western Europe. We look at the world but there’s nothing we can do about it”).

And here you can see where I was going with my opening remarks at the beginning of this article that we all sometimes get a feeling of watching the world unfold while experiencing the sensation of powerlessness.

Part of UCLA Live!’s daring International Theatre Festival –daring as trying the untried, threading virgin territory and taking financial chances on promising world acts- medEia is just part of the many world-class theatre acts being showcased this year, including acclaimed stage & film actor Ian McKellen.

medEia will play Sept 19-23 at the Macgowan Little Theatre.

Please note: All performances at 8pm except on Sunday September 23 (performance takes place at 7pm only on that day).

About medEia:

‘Written by van Woensel, the group’s in-house playwright, in collaboration with Bakker and Topper, the book draws on various sources, from Euripides and Seneca to Pier Paolo Pasolini and Heiner Müller. The script is spoken in what Dood Paard calls “Euro-English”—a kind of broken English used by non-native speakers who have English as their best common language—to underscore the universal nature of the story. Van Woensel’s text is punctuated with lines from American and British pop songs, creating a common lexicon of love that evokes, like Greek mythology, modern society’s collective memory. ‘

‘Set against a stylishly minimalist backdrop of projected shadows and evocative images, the play begins with the actors at the rear of the stage; they come closer to the audience with each new act. Paper curtains lay on the floor and are hoisted and then ripped down as the play progresses and Medea’s life is torn to pieces. The four acts are divided by slide shows accompanied by music and projected at varying speeds with dozens of seemingly random images—a collection of moments frozen in time—some lingering long enough to register a connection and sense that “medEia” is about everyone and everything. ‘

‘“medEia” opened in spring 1998 at the Toneelschuur in Haarlem, the Netherlands, followed by a tour through the Netherlands and Belgium. Since then, Dood Paard has performed the play in countries across Europe and at international festivals, premiering it in North America at the June 2007 Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., to a sold-out house and critical raves.’

‘An experimental avant-garde collective, Dood Paard was founded in 1993 by Topper, Bakker and van Woensel after they graduated from the ArtEZ arts academy in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The innovative company has developed a varied repertory (in Dutch, English and soon German) that is often political in subject matter and provocative in tone, including original works and 40 stage productions of classics by playwrights such as Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Wilde and Albee. The group sometimes works with deejays, writers and musicians and has produced numerous films for television, as well as a TV serial. ‘

‘Working without a director, the collective typically reverses the usual relationship between the actor and character, in which the actor is required to step into the character’s shoes. ‘