The Majestic Medusa

On the 23rd of February, a mind-blowing performance brought life to the Theatre Seven stage, with mesmerising connotations and contemporary movements. It captured the life of Medusa, a reflection on the feminine powerful symbol on the coast of Barcelona.

The setting was sensational, with its simplicity, but also with its message. Plastic sheets represented the sea, for Medusa to explore her aquatic symbolism in the environmental future of the seas. Chimneys, continuously smoking throughout the performance and this symbolised the message about climate change. Littering was portrayed and this was showing how that was affecting the environment, by the costumes such as having a bin distributing litter on the stage and dancing with industrial piping on the performers' heads. As the scenes became darker and upsetting, ash would be cascading from the roof top, emphasising the effect Medusa has on her surroundings. During the intense scenes, the lighting would be focused on that main narrative and were all on time.

The acting was phenomenal, especially with it containing very little dialogue. This astounded me, because all of their emotion was portrayed through their dancing and this made me realise the difficulty in portraying emotion. It was like their bodies were an art form, like it was their voice. Throughout this: abuse, relationship issues and power were demonstrated with their intense choreography. Things were being shown metaphorically, with having rope on the head to represent suffocation. Everyone on stage performed to pure perfection, so professional and stayed in character throughout the whole piece, even with the costume changes.

Throughout the whole piece, the choreography was overwhelming, especially with how the props were incorporated, such as sticks and these were held up by pairs of dancers for Medusa to walk across, she did it so majestically. Every move was: fluent, connected and meaningful. All of the connotations went within the heart-warming and relaxing music that played throughout, feeling like a four-dimensional experience, as you could feel the music through your chair, especially when dramatic situations happened. The way the dancers get on and off stage is so moving, because they moved like they were trying to be, such as the sea.

I personally wasn’t expecting that type of performance. I thought it was going to be a narrative on what Medusa does and I was disappointed that didn’t happen, making me confused. However, the whole performance was incredible, even making me teary, due to the tragic event. I quite liked having no interval, because it made me stay engaged with the piece and so it maintains fluidity, mainly with the contemporary element of the piece, because if there was an interval, it would lose its narrative and passion and it would be difficult to point a part to make the interval. The audience seemed to also be caught under Medusa’s spell, being controlled.

If you love the feminine powerful symbol, this would mesmerise your eyes and I would definitely go and see it before you turn into stone. That's not a myth!