"AN UNBEARABLE MASTERPIECE" ***** | NTGent
8 Imgl9072 Druk C Michiel Devijver

"AN UNBEARABLE MASTERPIECE" *****

| 25 April 2024
'Medea's Children', the new performance by Milo Rau & NTGent, is receiving excellent reviews in the Belgian and international press. A masterpiece, several reviewers conclude.

"Slowly and relentlessly, Milo Rau squeezes the tongs," writes Evelyne Coussens in De Morgen (BE), which awards Medea's Children  five stars. "He gets us exactly where he wanted us (...) Medea's Children  is not about Medea's fate. It is about our fate, and about how we keep looking away from fundamental violence. Milo Rau forces us to question that passivity. An unbearable masterpiece."

Sander Janssens of Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, who calls the performance "a blood-curdling, jet-black tragedy with a sparkle of hope", also describes how confrontational and topical Medea's Children is: "How absurdly capable are we of watching a tragedy unfold before our eyes, without intervening?", he asks himself.

"Masterful is the word that fits this performance," writes Johan Thielemans on Pzazz (BE).

The choice to have children perform the play, is "a hit", writes Het Nieuwsblad (BE) ****; other reviews also praise the young cast for their excellent acting skills. Etcetera (BE) calls them "precocious and very eloquent". The costumes are "magnificent", writes Theaterkrant (NL) which talks about "real and terrifying, inescapable theatre".

"This double drama shines in its rich radicality," the French website Scèneweb concludes. "Radical, raw and undoubtedly disturbing to many, Milo Rau's shock strategy proves to be intensely powerful in overcoming and exploding the barriers of imagination."

Medea's Children has its Dutch premiere at ITA Amsterdam on May 10. The French premiere in Douai/Arras (Tandem Théâtre) is on May 24. After that, the performance start at two very prestigious festivals: Wiener Festwochen (Austria) and Venice Biennale (Italy).

There's all that future, still Only humans can fantasise With closed eyes, you can see whomever you’d like Beyond madness, tenderness awaits Until it holds from the inside