Director’s Notes

by Ron Capinding

Dedication: For Dr. Ricardo Abad, whose voice still echoes in the wings of our stage, whose devotion to the classics shaped a generation, and whose vision reminds us that the theater is a place where time bends and humanity speaks. In Ang Medea, we honor him not only in memory but in action, keeping alive the courage, rigor, and artistry with which he taught us to hear the ancients, and to make them ours once more.

In staging Ang Medea, I find myself returning to the legacies of those who shaped me as an artist. This work continues the line that began with my mentor, Dr. Ricky Abad, and stretches back to his mentor, Rolando Tinio. Both were champions of classical plays, believing that the voices of the ancients still speak to us with urgency today. By bringing Medea to life anew, we not only honor their memory but also keep their vision alive, showing that theater is most vital when it wrestles with the timeless.

The power of a classical play, and of Greek tragedy in particular, lies not merely in reflecting social, political, or cultural conditions. It does more than flash a mirror before us; it explains us to ourselves. It digs beneath circumstance and context to reveal the raw architecture of the human condition. Medea is a story about what happens when dignity is demolished, and about the rage that festers in the wake of betrayal, alienation, and humiliation. Rage is deeply human, but once unleashed, it can drive us into acts that seem to exceed our humanity. This tragedy reminds us to be cautious, whether in our personal interactions or in our social arrangements, never to push a person, or a group of people, to the limit, lest the consequences become something we cannot contain or undo.

In this staging, I have been blessed to encounter like-minded artists and supporters who share this love for the classics, and who have poured themselves (financially, artistically, and spiritually) into making this play possible. I would like to make special mention of: Miren Alvarez-Fabregas, whose phenomenal thespic powers illuminate Medea; Yan Yuzon as Yason, whose sense of truth makes this classical play intimately relatable; Joseph dela Cruz as Egeo, whose clarity and generosity in performance are unmatched; Katski Flores as Yaya to Medea, whose gravitas and ominous presence add weight to the unfolding; Teroy Guzman, whose royal and intimidating bearing makes him the perfect Haring Kreon; Joel Macaventa as Maestro to Medea and Yason’s children, impeccably providing pragmatic, if not comic, relief to this heavy piece; and Pickles Leonidas and Gold Soon, whose formidable presence as the Koro frames the play with power, their voices and movements embodying the audience’s collective conscience.

I took the liberty of titling this Teatro Meron production Ang Medea to distinguish it from the Medea I staged last year in Tanghalang Ateneo, and more importantly, to suggest that “Medea” is not just a person, but an essence that resides within all of us, an essence that may or may not be unleashed depending on our experiences and circumstances of justice.

Ang Medea is not simply a story from the past, nor only a work of scholarship. It is a living encounter between an ancient text and our present selves, between the legacies of mentors now gone and the urgencies of our own time. I hope that this tragedy moves us not only to witness, but to remember: 

that within each of us lie the forces of love, dignity, betrayal, and rage… and that what we do with them determines whether we remain human, or become something far more dangerous.