A film crew records actors in costume on a foggy set, while a giant projection of a woman’s face with long hair appears in the background, creating a surreal, dramatic scene.
A large, distressed image of a screaming child is projected onto a dark wall at night; a small lit window appears on the right side of the scene.
Four people sit closely together on the ground in dim lighting, with two adults embracing and two children sitting nearby. Colorful abstract patterns are projected on the wall beside them.

Milo Rau: Medea’s Children

ABOUT

A group of children walks onstage and begins to tell a story adults would rather not hear. Drawing on both a real criminal case and the ancient myth of Medea, the mother who murdered her own children, Milo Rau hands his tragedy to the young. They narrate it, reenact it, and stand as its witnesses, turning one of theater’s oldest horrors over in their hands and asking what any of it looks like from where they stand.

Rau is among the most provocative directors alive, and Medea’s Children may be his most disarming work: intimate and epic at once, cruel and lucid and unexpectedly tender. It hands the story to the ones who inherit its consequences and lets them decide what to make of it.

ADVISORY
Contains violence and mature themes.

RUN TIME
90 minutes

Three reasons to go

PROVOCATIVE – A new work from one of the most important and provocative directors in European theater.

MORE THAN A CLASSIC – A daring reversal of Greek tragedy that hands the story to the children who, in Euripides, are only ever heard screaming offstage.

TRUTH & TRAGEDY – Documentary and myth are braided together into theater that is tender, cruel, and impossible to look away from.

THE ARTIST

Milo Rau

Milo Rau

CREATIVE CREDITS

With: Peter Seynaeve, Bernice Van Walleghem, Aiko Benaouisse, Ella Brennan, Helena van de Casteele, Juliette Debackere, Elias Maes
Concept and direction: Milo Rau
Dramaturgy: Kaatje De Geest
Video design: Moritz von Dungern
Sound design: Elia Rediger
Lighting design: Dennis Diels
Set design: ruimtevaarders

Costumes: Jo De Visscher
Prop design: Joris Soenen
Production: NTGent
Co-production: La Biennale di Venezia, Wiener Festwochen, ITA – Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Tandem – Scène nationale (Arras Douai)

GALLERY

PRESS

A blood-curdling, jet-black tragedy with a sparkle of hope.

de Volkskrant (on MEDEA'S CHILDREN) de Volkskrant (on MEDEA'S CHILDREN)

★★★★★
An unbearable masterpiece.

De Morgen (on MEDEA'S CHILDREN) De Morgen (on MEDEA'S CHILDREN)

SUPPORT

NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible in part with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels; Culture Ireland; The Shubert Foundation; Collins Building Services; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Goethe Institut New York with support from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts; Harkness Foundation for Dance; and Marta Heflin Foundation; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Allies for Arts Access Fund support.

This project is made possible, in part, through the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York.

The Swiss flag, a white cross on a red square background, with the word “Switzerland” written in bold black letters below.