Medee Kali by Laurent Gaudé

Médée Kali is a play that takes up the myth of Jason and Medea by Laurent Gaudé, novelist and playwright, prodigy of the last decade.

Medea, the infanticide. Gaudé writes the continuation of the myth of Medee after she has killed her two sons in revenge against her lover who betrayed her. Time has passed, but the idea that her sons lie in Greek soil is unbearable for her. She returns to the grave of her children to extract them and take her revenge. A man follows her on her way from a distance. He takes care never to approach her but follows her obstinately. She speaks to him. Will this stranger be her next lover or the fiercest of her enemies?  

Laurent Gaudé’s powerful monologue is written in modern verse. Each word expresses love, revenge, expectation, desire, and madness with a power and an aura of mystery, proper to the magic of the character and the strength of his feelings.

Laurent Gaudé  

Gaudé was born on July 6, 1972 in Paris. In 2004, he won the Goncourt Prize for his novel Le Soleil des Scorta. It has been translated into 34 languages. With a thesis in theatre studies, he published his first play Combats de Possédés in 1999, followed by a play translated into German and performed in Essen in a production by Jürgen Bosse. He published his second play, Onyos le Furieux, in 2000. It was staged in June of the same year at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg. He also wrote a third play created in March at the Comédie Française studio called Pluies de Cendres.  

He wrote his first novel Cris, set in the trenches of the First World War. Cendres sur les mains and Le tigre bleu de l’Euphrate were added to his theatrical repertoire in 2002. Salina in 2003, and Médée Kali created in 2003 at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in a production by Philippe Calvario. He alternates between theatre and novels and won the Goncourt des lycéens and the Prix des libraires with La Mort du Roi Tsongor in 2002 before the Goncourt in 2004.