The continuing shock appeal of "Medea" by Euripides (480-406 B.C.), is not simply due to its dramatization of infanticide and the rage of a woman who has been scorned by her lover, but also because it touches on other universal themes such as the perennial position of underdogs in society, and how they may choose not to accept their lot.
Medea's second-class status comes as a woman in a world dominated by another "male" mentality, but also as a mysterious foreigner from the barbarian country of Colchis (present-day Georgia).
For Japan's renowned and amazingly industrious director Yukio Ninagawa, this production at Theatre Cocoon in Tokyo's Shibuya marks a return to the play that in 1983 first put his name on the world drama map when he toured it first around Japan and then France, Italy, Greece, Canada, the United States, Taiwan, England and Egypt.