Mamma Medea at Theatre National

Following La Langue de ma Mère (My mother's tongue) brought to the stage by the author himself last season, Tom Lanoye, that symbolic figure of Flemish literature, will once again have the place of honour with the creative high point of the 11/12 season at the Rideau de Bruxelles. And once again the text has a striking strength and intelligence: in Mamma Medea Tom Lanoye puts forward a very personal vision of the myth of Medea, taking its inspiration from different sources. A bitter, sensual, colourful, tragicomic vision which bridges the distance between antiquity and the present day.

Lanoye captures the infernal couple of Jason and Medea at the moment when they meet; he condenses the saga of the quest of the famous Golden Fleece which Medea's father, the tyrant Aietes, required from Jason. He then focuses on the couple who engage in an intense and surprising dialogue, almost a scene from a modern domestic quarrel, with the children asking their parents not to shout so loudly. As ever with Lanoye, the language is at the heart of the dramatic process: the "Barbarians" (on Medea's side) speak in verse and the "civilised" Greeks (on Jason's side) reply in a modern, almost slang language, in a clipped accent. And using ancient mythology, Lanoye makes a powerful commentary on culture shock within a couple as the basis of all wars.

Well-served by Christophe Sermet's remarkable staging, his direction and spatial awareness, fantastic actors and full of energy, this Mamma Medea is a red-hot show.