What could turn a woman from a lover into a destroyer of love?
Medea tells the story of a woman laid bare by grief and rage, and her terrible quest for revenge against the men who have abandoned her.
Sophie Okonedo brings her visceral, mercurial brilliance to literature’s most titanic female protagonist, whose complexity and contradictions have kept audiences on the edge of their seats, unable to look away, for almost 2,500 years.
Medea, adapted by Robinson Jeffers from the play by Euripides. Dominic Cooke directs Sophie Okonedo as Medea and Ben Daniels as Jason/Tutor/Creon/Aegeus in this ‘uncompromising, brutally human 90-minute production’ (Evening Standard). Medea is now playing for a strictly limited season @sohoplace.
“I am really excited and a touch nervous to be playing Medea. I’m buoyed by the fact I’m working with two of my closest friends and long-term collaborators, Dominic Cooke and Ben Daniels. I was lucky enough to have Nica Burns show me around the new Soho Place theatre while it was still being built, and I was so impressed by the space that I signed up immediately to perform there!” Sophie Okonedo
“I have been friends with Sophie Okonedo since we were in our teens. We’ve worked together many times including on Arabian Nights at the Young Vic in 1998 and The Hollow Crown: Wars of the Roses for the BBC in 2015. Sophie is one of our most visceral, emotionally connected actors and I have long thought she’d be a brilliant Medea. I am over the moon that it’s now happening in Kate Horton and my second West End project for our company Fictionhouse. I’m also really looking forward to working again with the super talented Ben Daniels after our hugely fulfilling collaboration on The Normal Heart at the National Theatre. Ben and Sophie have been an explosive onstage partnership in the past and I can’t wait to see them playing these iconic roles together in Nica Burns’ thrilling new auditorium @sohoplace.” Dominic Cooke
Our Official Hotel Partner is The Londoner.
★★★★A blazing Sophie Okonedo makes this spartan production a must-see
Evening Standard
★★★★Ben Daniels is superb in each role
The Guardian
★★★★Dominic Cooke’s subtle, brilliant staging
The Independent
★★★★A majestic Okonedo blazes with fury, love and despair
Daily Telegraph
★★★★Okonedo responds with a blistering performance of raw elemental power
iNews
★★★★Dominic Cooke’s uncompromising, brutally human 90-minute production
Evening Standard
Medea
Theatre credits include: Antony and Cleopatra (National Theatre – Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress; and nominated for Best Actress Olivier Award); The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? (Theatre Royal Haymarket); The Crucible (Walter Kerr Theatre, New York – Nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, Tony Awards); A Raisin In The Sun (Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York – Tony Award for Best Performance By An Actress In A Featured Role In A Play and Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance Award); The Haunted Child, Night Songs and I Just Dropped By To See The Man (Royal Court Theatre); Troilus and Cressida and Money (National Theatre); and The Arabian Nights (Young Vic).
Television credits include: Slow Horses; Inside No. 9 The Wheel of Time; Modern Love; Britannia; Criminal (Nominated for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA); Ratched (Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress In a Drama Series, Emmy Award); Chimerica; Flack; Wanderlust; Undercover (Royal Television Society Programme Award for Best Actress); The Hollow Crown; The Escape Artist; Mayday; Sinbad; The Slap; Criminal Justice (Nominated for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA); Father & Son; Oliver Twist; Celebration and Tsunami: The Aftermath (NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special Category, and nominated for Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture for Television, Golden Globe Awards).
Film credits include: Raymond & Ray, Catherine, Called Birdy, Death on the Nile, Wild Rose, War Book, Mrs Mandela (Nominated for Best Actress BAFTA and TV Collective Award for Best Actress), Skin, The Secret Life of Bees (Hollywood Film Award for Best Ensemble Acting of the Year), Martian Child; Stormbreaker, Hotel Rwanda (Nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Academy Awards) and Dirty Pretty Things.
Jason/Tutor/Creon/Aegeus+
Theatre credits include: The Normal Heart (National Theatre – Winner of Best Actor, Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, Nominated for Best Actor, Olivier Awards), Therese Raquin, Iphigenia at Aulis, Three Sisters and All My Sons (Olivier Award and a Whatsonstage Award for Best Supporting Actor) National Theatre; Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Roundabout Theatre Company New York- Theatre World Award for Breakthrough Broadway Performance, Tony Nomination for Best Actor, Drama Desk and an Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Actor) ; The Haunted Child (Royal Court Theatre); Don’t Dress For Dinner (Roundabout Theatre, New York); Luise Miller, The Wild Duck, The God of Hell and Tales From Hollywood (Donmar Warehouse); As You Like It (Sheffield Theatres – TMA Supporting Actor award nomination); Martin Yesterday (Royal Exchange M.E.N. nomination for Best Actor); 900 Oneonta (The Old Vic/Ambassadors Theatre – Nominated for Best Actor Award, Evening Standard Awards); Never the Sinner (Playhouse Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor).
Television credits include: Foundation, Jupiter’s Legacy; The Crown, The Exorcist, The Simpsons, Jesus Christ Superstar Live, The Hollow Crown, Flesh and Bone, Jamaica Inn, The Paradise, House of Cards, Merlin, Law and Order: UK, Cutting It, Conspiracy, Aristocrats, The State Within, Elizabeth – The Virgin Queen, Real Men.
Film credits include: Argylle, Benediction, Captive State, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Exception, The Wipers Times, Locke, Luna; Doom, Fogbound, Married Unmarried, Fanny and Elvis, Madeleine, I Want You, Passion in the Desert, Beautiful Thing.
Nurse
Theatre credits include: The Deep Blue Sea, Blurred Lines, Grief, Black Snow, Man Beast and Virtue, (National Theatre); Handbagged (Kiln Theatre/ West End); A Kind of Alaska (Bristol Old Vic); Time of My Life (Watford Palace); Death of a Salesman (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Empty Bed Blues (Lakeside Nottingham); Mine, War and Peace, Kinder Transport – TMA Awards Nomination (Shared Experience/Hampstead Theatre); Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, Blest be the Tie, This is a Chair, Falkland Sound, Panic, Hush, Beside Herself (Royal Court Theatre); The Arab Israeli Cookbook and Dance of Death (Tricycle); Holes in the Skin (Chichester Festival Theatre); Normal, All of You Mine (Bush Theatre); Cloud Nine (The Old Vic); Bad Blood (Gate Theatre); A Delicate Balance (Nottingham Playhouse); Where There is Darkness, Favourite Nights (Lyric Hammersmith); Raspberry (Soho Poly); Lazy Days Ltd. (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Loving Women (Arts Theatre); A Doll’s House (Edinburgh Lyceum), extensive work in repertory theatre with seasons at Oldham, Canterbury, Sidmouth and Theatre North and work in fringe theatre including the Edinburgh Festival, Croydon Warehouse, The Old Red Lion and the Bridewell.
Television credits include: All the Light We Cannot See, Damage, Shakespeare and Hathaway, The Dreamer, Endeavour, This is Going to Hurt, The Crown: Series 3 and 4 (Screen Actors Guild Award Winner 2020 and 2021), Temple, Britannia Series 2, SSGB, The Trials of Jimmy Rose, Case Histories, Him and Her, Being Human, Monday Monday, New Tricks, Midsomer Murders, Derailed, Holby City, Cherished, Micawber, Shades, The Thing About Vince, Under the Sun, Dalziel and Pascoe, Shine on Harvey Moon, V, Casualty, Dangerfield, The Bill, A Touch of Frost, Boon, The Bretts, To Have and To Hold, Reservations, Charlie, Miracles, Just Deserts, Raspberry, Woycek, Jury, Inspector Morse, No More Dying Then, Reflections of Evil, Big Deal, Casualty, Stay Lucky, Poirot.
Film credits include: Brighton, Peterloo, Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back, Allied, Lady in the Van, Mr Turner (Nomination, London Critics Circle Film Awards), Toast, I’ll Be There, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, Nasty Neighbours, Don’t Get Me Started.
3rd Woman of Corinth
Theatre credits include: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Paradise, Jellyfish, Macbeth, My Country: A Work in Progress, Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State, An Oak Tree, Everyman, Edward II, Table and Timon of Athens (National Theatre); The Tempest, Roberto Zucco and Measure for Measure (RSC); Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Rose Theatre), Seeds (Tiata Fahodzi/Soho); Cleft (Rough Magic/Galway Festival); Sketching (Wilton’s Music Hall); Dr Seuss’ The Lorax, Cinderella (The Old Vic); Bright Phoenix (Liverpool Everyman); Beryl (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Nora (Belgrade, Coventry); Jellyfish, 66 Books (Bush Theatre); Incoming (Hightide Festival); Lidless (Trafalgar Studios/Hightide Festival/Edinburgh); Draw Me Close, Vernon God Little, The Art of Random Whistling (Young Vic); The Bacchae, Mary Barton, Electra, Mayhem (Manchester Royal Exchange); Dancing at Lughnasa (Birmingham Rep); The Spanish Tragedy (Arcola); Romeo and Juliet, The Antipodes, Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe); Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead Theatre/Tour); Assassins (Sheffield Crucible); Seasons Greetings, Popcorn (Liverpool Playhouse); The Laramie Project (West End); Romeo and Juliet (Southwark Playhouse); The Recruiting Officer (Lichfield Garrick); A Passage to India, The Magic Toyshop, Jane Eyre (Shared Experience); Maid Marian and her Merry Men (Bristol Old Vic) and What I Did In The Holidays, The Plough And The Stars, Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Dangerous Corner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New Vic, Stoke).
Television credits include: Father Brown, Belgravia, Casualty, My Country: A Work in Progress, Grantchester, Dark Angel, EastEnders, Doctors, Prisoner’s Wives, Call the Midwife, Land Girls, Sirens, South Riding, Doctors, Silent Witness, Poppy Shakespeare, Bad Mother’s Handbook, Waterloo Road, No Angels, The Bill, Murphy’s Law, Fat Friends, Outlaws and M.I.T.
Film credits include: Broken and The Libertine.
Radio credits include: Second Chance, Uganda and Crime and Punishment.
1st Woman of Corinth
Theatre credits include: The Corn is Green, The House Of Bernarda Alba, The Children’s Hour (National Theatre); The Jungle (The Young Vic, Playhouse Theatre and St Ann’s Warehouse); 4.48 Psychosis (St Ann’s Warehouse); Wastewater, Fleshwound, Bluebird, 4.48 Psychosis (Royal Court); The Herbal Bed, As You Like It, General from America (Royal Shakespeare Company); Uncle Vanya (Young Vic); M.A.D (Bush); On Blindness, Dirty Butterfly (Soho Theatre); Edward II (Sheffield Crucible)
Television credits include: This England, Eternal Law, Five Daughters, Material Girl, Recovery, Afterlife, Sorted, The World Of Impressionists, Spooks, Living It, Playing The Field.
Film credits include: Me and Orson Welles, The New Romantics, My Wife is an Actress, Birthday Girl, Gangster No. 1
2nd Woman of Corinth
Theatre credits include: Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me (Kiln Theatre/Tour, Paines Plough); The Taming of the Shrew (RSC); Measure for Measure (RSC); Goth Weekend (The Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough/Live Theatre, Newcastle); The Who’s Tommy (Tour); The Glass Menagerie (Nottingham Playhouse); Shakespeare Within The Abbey (Westminster Abbey with Shakespeare’s Globe); The Sonnet Walks (Shakespeare’s Globe); Fusion (Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler’s Wells); The Joy of Dance (Lyric Hammersmith) and Sadler’s Wells Takeover Weekend (National Theatre’s River Stage).
Television credits include: The F**k It Bucket, Unforgotten, Casualty, The Other One, Such Brave Girls, Feel Good, Unprecedented, Stella and Doctors.
Film credits include: Street Dogs, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Pas De Deux.
Audio credits includes: Found, Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me and The A-Z of Things: A is for Award.
Amy is also a writer for theatre, TV and radio. Writing work includes Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me (joint winner of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020), Ralph and Katie, The A-Z of Things: A is for Award and It’s Not Like It’s Illegal (Theatre Royal Stratford East).
Understudy Medea
Theatre Includes: Dead Lies (Red Productions); Faustus That Damned Woman (Headlong); Henry V (Barn theatre); Salome (Roundhouse); Twelfth Night (Attic Theatre); Invisible Mountains (National Theatre); Edward II (Greenwich Theatre); Macbeth (Broadway Theatre)
Television Includes: Pheonix Rise (cbbc); Father Brown, Doctors, Eastenders, WPC 56, Holby City (BBC); The Five (Red picture company); Nightflyers (Syfy); Coronation Street (ITV)
Film Includes: Infinite (Paramount); A Boy A Man A Kite (Chatsby Films)
Understudy Jason/Tutor/Creon/Aegeus+
Theatre credits include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (UK tour), Ugly Lies the Bone, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Strange Interlude, Scenes From An Execution, Travelling Light, The London Cuckolds, Ivanov (The National Theatre); Present Laughter, Girl From The North Country, The Crucible, Dancing At Lughnasa (Old Vic); 101 Dalmatians (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Sheppey (Orange Tree); Macbeth (Court Theatre, NZ); Four Cities (The Fortune, NZ); Treasure Island (The New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme) The Alchemist (The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); Forever House (The Drum, Plymouth Theatre Royal); A View From The Bridge (Liverpool Playhouse); The Winter’s Tale (Riding Lights Theatre Company); The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo & Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Dick Whittington, Aladdin (Salisbury Playhouse); Jack & The Beanstalk, Mother Goose, Aladdin, Dick Whittington, BFG (Harrogate Theatre); The Crampons of Fear (Easter Angles); Hamlet, 27 (Fecund Theatre); A Doll’s House (New End Theatre); Gallows Song, Dark Tales (The Bridewell Theatre); Antony & Cleopatra, Tales From King James, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Macbeth, Robin Hood, The Oxford Passion, Shakespeare’s Saint & Sinners (Creation Theatre Co.)
Understudy Nurse and Women of Corinth
Theatre includes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regents Park, Open Air); Gotcha, Rack Abbey, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Man of Mode (Cheek by Jowl); Shakers, Cut and Dried (Hull Truck); The Terrible Voice of Satan, Backpay (Royal Court); Bed Among the Lentils, Talking Talking Heads (Theatre Maketa); Grim Tales (Bargehouse); Ivy (SPID/Southwark Playhouse); The Norman Conquests, A Small Family Business (Birmingham Rep); A Doll’s House (Young Vic, Duke of York’s, BAM); A Lady of Letters (Copake/NY); Uncle Vanya (Harold Pinter). Rep in Harrogate, Manchester Library, Worcester, Derby, Salisbury, Oldham, Exeter.
Film includes: Thursday, Stone Tears, Meat, Be as You Wish to Seem, This Bloody Line.
TV includes: Baddiel’s Syndrome, Inspector Lynley, Perfect World, Hamish Macbeth, Take Three Women.
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Director
Design
Lighting
Sound
Casting Director
Movement Director
Associate Director
Production Manager
Costume Supervisor
Wigs Designer
Props Supervisor
Vocal/Dialect Coach
Please note that the producers cannot guarantee the appearance of any particular artist at any performance, as this is subject to a variety of factors including illness, injury, or events beyond the producers’ control. No refunds or exchanges will be offered as a result of an artist’s unavailability to perform at any performance.