Medea 2018
‘Taking a piece construed as archaic, Francesca is infusing her voice and the voices of many students of colour to tackle the diversity problem’
‘I truthfully had no disappointments. I would have been quite content to watch it another two or twenty times. [...] The tragic classic will not be lost to this generation.’
‘The play [was] staged to standing ovations’
Medea, adapted and directed by Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, was a groundbreaking production performed at Oxford University in 2018 with the Oxford BAME Drama Society.
The Society was set up by Riya Rana, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers and Taiwo Oyebola to address the lack of diversity in the Oxford student drama scene.
Medea was a success on so many levels. It united actors, dancers, spoken-word artists and musicians from diverse cultures. It welcomed new creatives and audiences into theatre - for the majority of the cast and crew, Medea was their first experience working on a show. The profits generated from the sell-out show were donated to the BAME Drama Society which is still running to date.
Cast & Crew
Medea: Charithra Chandran
Jason: Joel Stanley
Aegeus: Karekin Johnson
Creon: Michael Shao
Creusa: Jeevan Ravindran
Nurse: Maryam Rimi & Ore Laniyan
Messenger: Shreya Lakhani
Tutor: Dhanya Nair
Chorus: Anushka Shah, Olivia Moinuddin, Fis Noibi, Tumi Olufawo,
Rore Disun-Odebode, Madhulika Murali, Shekinah Opara