Medea: a new version - Softcover

Kennelly, Brendan; Euripides

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852241896 ISBN 13: 9781852241896

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

Brendan Kennelly has turned this classic tale of betrayal and vengeance into a text for our times. The sorceress Medea marries Jason after helping him and the Argonauts steal the Golden Fleece. When Jason deserts her, she punishes her faithless husband by murdering their two sons, after killing his young bride and her father with a robe of fire. Medea carries out her bloody revenge in the name of Justice, but in the spirit of rage. The rage of many modern women, including Irishwomen, electrifies this highly charged and deeply personal play. First staged at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Kennelly’s chilling new version of Euripides’ great tragedy has delighted and devastated audiences in Ireland, Britain and America. This edition is now out of print but is reprinted in Kennelly's Greek plays trilogy, When Then Is Now.

About this title

About the Author

Brendan Kennelly is one of Ireland’s most distinguished and best loved poets, as well as a renowned teacher and cultural commentator. Born in 1936 in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry, he was Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College, Dublin for over 30 years, and retired from teaching in 2005. He now lives in Listowel, Co. Kerry. He has published more than 30 books of poetry, including Familiar Strangers: New & Selected Poems 1960-2004 (2004), which includes the whole of his book-length poem The Man Made of Rain (1998). He is best-known for two controversial poetry books, Cromwell, published in Ireland in 1983 and in Britain by Bloodaxe in 1987, and his epic poem The Book of Judas (1991), which topped the Irish bestsellers list: a shorter version was published by Bloodaxe in 2002 as The Little Book of Judas. His third epic, Poetry My Arse (1995), did much to outdo these in notoriety. All these remain available separately from Bloodaxe, along with his more recent titles: Glimpses (2001), Martial Art (2003), Now (2006), Reservoir Voices (2009), The Essential Brendan Kennelly: Selected Poems, edited by Terence Brown and Michael Longley, with audio CD (2011), and Guff (2013). His Journey into Joy: Selected Prose, edited by Åke Persson, was published by Bloodaxe in 1994, along with Dark Fathers into Light, a critical anthology on his work edited by Richard Pine. John McDonagh’s critical study Brendan Kennelly: A Host of Ghosts was published in The Liffey Press’s Contemporary Irish Writers series in 2004.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1852241896
• ISBN 13: 9781852241896
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80