September 6, 2014

A balmy September evening in London, probably one of the last for many months, in a quaint cobbled alleyway the cafes and bars have tables set out on the pavement, complete with candles, charming. But the crowd walking down the middle of the lane are not stopping, no, they are off to the cinema to see a film of a play, of a Greek tragedy to be specific, and it’s about infanticide. Leaving aside the subject, the format alone sounds a bit dodgy. Well that was what I thought when the National Theatre first began its series of filmed plays, NT Live. Since then film after film has confounded we sceptics and given us the chance to see some of the NT’s finest work. Medea, a 5th Century BC tragedy by Euripides, presented here in an illuminating new version by Ben Power, is the first from their latest season.

What you witness in the cinema is neither entirely a theatre performance nor entirely a film. For Medea the staging made the film option strong. For a start it is a modern dress production, the action laid out in a space like the damp basement...