MEDEA
Founded by director Amy Eaton and actors Peter Cook and Marjorie Tanzar, Nature of the Beast is dedicated to producing shows with a strong physical emphasis, accessible to both hearing and hearing-impaired audiences. (Cook–seen in La Barraca ’90’s terrific The Sleep Walker’s Ballad last year–is deaf, and Tanzar is the daughter of deaf parents.) Their adaptation fuses several versions of the Medea tale, brought together in a script that includes outlined sections the actors improvise, both verbally and physically. Weary of the traditional simultaneous translation of signed dialogue by a side-stage interpreter, Eaton also provides a full synopsis in the program to allow for sequences performed only in ASL. This is a unique spin on the myth, a classical tale of passion and revenge, with a Medea who’s conceived as deaf.
