Khadija El Kharraz Alami's "Now I am Medea" upturns all previous preconceptions about the heroine of the Greek myth.
Now I am Medea is based on a story by tragedian classical Greek storyteller, Euripides. How did you become interested in Greek myth?
– I think I was nuts (laughs). No, when I went to study drama at the acting school in Utrecht, I didn't have a lot of knowledge of theater. I was not educated in theater whatsoever. But the courses in which we studied the Greek tragedies and mythologies really resonated. I could easily make connections to my own cultural background. The story of Medea always stuck around in my head because I found it quite feminist. So I'm not sure if Euripides could have written it!
I could see my mother in this archetype. Not that she killed her children, obviously! My artistic practice is based on research. So I study a lot of essays. I discovered Medea when I read Martha Nussbaum's "Anger and Forgiveness" and decided to embrace my inner Medea. I had a lot of anger inside me and was often told that I was too much and too emotionally driven. When I graduated in 2014 I felt a lot of misogyny and discrimination in professional life. I got a lot of “Oh, you're complex”, or “you're difficult”. I became so bored with it, that I decided to own my complexity, to own being difficult. But I needed a character to support that and Medea was the one. So now I’m owning it all through Sweden!
When I started my research, there were a couple of Medea productions from big theater houses performing in the Netherlands. And Medea was always portrayed as crazy. She always ended up in a mental hospital and these productions were condemning her rage. And that created more rage in me.
How does Medea resonate with your background?
– I didn't ask to be born working class or to be born poor, Arab, Muslim, and all of that: yet stilI I get punished for it, for how I am, but at the same time, people want my knowledge and want my wisdom, and want to profit from my point of view.
So the Netherlands isn’t a liberal country for a non-white person to live?
– It's very racist. It's very right-wing. It's very depressing. I mean, come on, the Dutch were one of the world’s biggest colonizers, and they co-created apartheid. If you're a North African, an Arab Muslim, and you're critical, they would rather shut you down than have a discourse. It’s no surprise that I perform more often in Sweden than I do the Netherlands.
Is it exhausting to perform solo?
– I give my audience a certain responsibility. I have a way of engaging with my audience so that I do not have to do it all by myself. A lot of people would say, ‘I hate interactive theater. That's really not something for me.’ But it's a different kind of interactive. It's very transparent. It's very honest. In Belgium, when I toured this, some people walked away. And then when I asked them, ‘Why do you walk away, sir?’, I got answers such as ‘I came here to see a show and not be confronted with my past.’
Why write in English?
– I was invited by Riksteatern to make an English adaptation of Medea. And then I thought, ‘Okay, I like that challenge’. And so I adapted it to English. And it's subtitled in Swedish so that everyone can get along (laughs).
You’ve been performing Medea for five years now. How has the play changed you?
– It’s not really about me. It's as much about the audience as it is about me, and it's as much about how we have a responsibility in society to not fear the unknown, but to embrace it more. Everyone feels so entitled to opinions, and maybe we should have fewer opinions and listen more to find out why this person with the curly hair and darker skin tone is in a rage.
– Learn not to judge, but take responsibility and stay curious and loving and caring.
Now I am Medea is at Sara kulturhus on Saturday, October 28