Medea at the NT. If only they had...

***1/2 This was one of those productions where one thinks, 'if only they had...'. The concept of a twentieth century chain smoking Medea was good, Tom Scutt's split-level set was potentially very good (although the lighting failed to do it justice), but Carrie Cracknell's direction and Ben Power's text simply left too much out.

Medea might be 'wrenched in two' but her character shouldn't be; at one point she transforms into this incongruous figure and one is left thinking, 'who's this, has dropped out of character?' - one has to blame the direction again. Jason also lacked emotion and Creon seemed but a walk-on part. On the whole Helen McCrory's performance did however, hold the production together. Other things wrangle too; Creusa's poisoning (and Creon's too) was all but ignored and the final spectacle of Medea being 'borne away in a chariot' was dropped. Yes, many directors do this, but not to replace it with an alternative ending of substance was criminal.

A final thought must be made regarding the chorus. When they started their 'jerky' dance like possessed maenads one thought 'wow'...only to quickly realise that they failed to move in time with the music (let alone each other) and also couldn't dance. Bringing in Australian choreographer Lucy Guerin seems yet another aspect of this production not to have worked. If only they had...