Medea, Gate Theatre Notting Hill *****

The bravery of Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks' adaptation of Medea to put the children at the forefront is commendable. The practicalities of getting strong enough child actors to star is near impossible, on top of the need to get across Euripides' original plot and essentially make two children waiting feel exiting and engaging for one hour and ten minutes. Therefore it is astonishing to find that Sarks' production not only works; it excels in every aspect. The setting both exists in the modern day, with Amy Jane Cook's design transforming the Gate's space into a contemporary boys bedroom, and in the Greek age, with the story of Jason and the Argonauts being recounted which could either be interpreted as a fairytale or a real one. The language is naturalistic and focuses on the children's innocence but also treats Medea with sympathy. Amongst the innocence, however, it also has a social commentary on modern day socialisation. You enter in to a normal boy's bedroom strewn about with Nerf guns, bows and arrows and, throughout the show, Jasper and Leon fence, reenact deaths and attack a toy monkey with a foam baseball bat. These activities are used to demonstrate the socialisation of males towards violence and aggression in a rather unsettling way. This feeling is intensified when it is being carried out by innocent children who still wet themselves and hug their father's blanket. Jasper and Leon were played by Bill Keogh and Samuel Menhinick at the performance I went to and they are wonderful young actors who don't come across as precocious and annoying which child actors occasionally come across as. This is a wonderfully immersive and emotional experience that gets to the crux of Euripide's tragedy.