By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
October 20, 1993
“Kabuki Medea”
8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, to Nov. 28
Wisdom Bridge Theatre, 1559 W. Howard
$20 to $30
(312) 743-6000
With “Kabuki Medea,” Wisdom Bridge Theatre uses traditional Japanese Kabuki-style theater to tackle Euripides’ Greek classic “Medea.” The result is a splendidly clever tale that is familiar, enacted in a way that is not.
Almost 400 years old, Kabuki theater is based on highly stylized and exaggerated moves. In Shozo Sato’s production, which opened Monday night, the actors speak English, but with exaggerated Asian inflections. The rich costumes and demure movements are decidedly Japanese, but the thoughts behind them are Western. The Greek locales in Euripides’ play are substituted by medieval Japanese islands.
This adaptation keeps the Western names that Euripides gave his heroes. By the end of the first act, the audience doesn’t find it at all surprising that a Japanese nobleman would be named Jason.
Sato’s direction is true to Kabuki austerity. But where men portray all the parts in traditional Kabuki, the starring role belongs to Barbara E. Robertson. As the lovelorn Medea, Robertson dominates the stage with her coy mannerisms and strong convictions.
Hers is a voice that is hushed at one moment, thunderous at another.
I first saw her perform the role in 1985 – two years after it opened the first time at Wisdom Bridge – at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Robertson’s delightful facial expressions and vocal clarity were evident to even those sitting in the back of the cavernous hall. At the more intimate Wisdom Bridge Theatre, a lesser actress could have made a farce of the role. But Robertson maintains her level of excellence and adds even more depth to the complicated heroine.
Henry Godinez (who was a member of the chorus in the original production) plays Jason, the handsome but calculating warrior who promises to marry Medea and make her his queen if she helps him conquer the Golden Dragon. She does, and he brings her to his kingdom. But when he finds a princess whose father offers more wealth and power than Medea’s, he divorces her to take a new bride.
“You have taken everything of mine and used it to your advantage,” Medea tells Jason. “. . . Being a man is a disease.”
Godinez brings swashbuckling virility to the role, adding soul to an otherwise unlikable character. While he easily sweet-talks and bullies Medea to get what he wants, he acts like a fawning puppy with his princess. The scene in which Jason introduces his fiancee to Medea is hilarious, showing that Jason’s bravado comes as naturally to him as does his fear of losing power.
There is a spartan beauty to the small set, which never seems cluttered or confused. The unobtrusive kokens – or stagehands dressed in ninja-esque black garb who help the principals change costumes in view of the audience – keep things going and are entertaining to watch in their own right.
