Medea

“I understand how monstrous my crime is, but passion is stronger than my reason—it drives mortals to every crime.” /Euripides, Medea/

Director Reinis Suhanovs unfolds the more than 2,000-year-old myth of a woman who left everything—her homeland and home—to build a temple to their life together with her husband, raising difficult and existential questions: “What should be done with a passion that has caught fire and spiralled out of control, dragging the family temple along with it? Should the flames be contained when you are burning? Does the betrayed Medea have the right, in her hurt, to tear down to the foundations, in the most horrific way, what she has built?”

The audience can expect to grapple with complex ethical questions, but in this darkness of confusion and delusion, as in every true tragedy, catharsis also offers an arrow pointing towards the exit. “Time is so cruel that I see no contradiction in speaking about cruelty in theatre, too,” says Reinis Suhanovs.

The production is also distinctive as a creative dialogue between students of Andris Freibergs (1938–2022), master of stage design and lecturer at the Art Academy of Latvia: Reinis Suhanovs and Monika Korpa.

The production received nominations for the 2025/2026 season’s “Spēlmaņu nakts” awards in the following categories:

The production was created with the support of the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation during Valmiera Theatre’s 2025/2026 season.

With the Foundation’s support, the following productions reached audiences in the 2026/2027 season: The Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (director Indra Roga).

In the 2025/2026 season: The Evil Spirit (director Inese Mičule), Medea (director Reinis Suhanovs), You Will Be Mine! (director Jānis Znotiņš), Skroderdienas Silmačos (director Elmārs Seņkovs).

In the 2024/2025 season: Romeo and Juliet (director Inese Mičule), Blue (director Māra Ķimele), Sprīdītis (director Reinis Suhanovs), Four White Shirts (director Jānis Znotiņš), and The Magic Mountain (director Toms Treinis).

The friendship between the theatre and the Foundation began in the 2023/2024 season, the theatre’s centenary, when four works of Latvian dramatic classics were staged: Valmiera Boys (director Jānis Znotiņš), The Widow’s Son (director Viesturs Roziņš), as well as Joseph and His Brothers (director Inese Mičule) and The Prodigal Son (director Reinis Suhanovs), which received particular acclaim from audiences and critics.