Women on the planet today who have done it and they did not do it for reasons Had justified the decision by saying that the problem of women murdering theirĬhildren is not a problem we actually have that there are only a handful of Goold: Cusk did not believe in the child-killing as a literal event and GooldĬould not conceive of a Medea in which the children are not killed. Had been a point of contention between Cusk and the play’s director, Rupert Then Sarah rolled her eyes behind her thick black glasses at the preposterous seriousness of the charge. It had to do with a failure of imagination. This verdict did not have anything to do with the north London setting or the references to answering machines, Hollywood and Johnnie Walker: after all, her favourite production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream transposed its forest into a nightclub, and she had loved that recent version of The Wild Duck in Australian vernacular. In the early 2000s: acrimony in divorce and ambivalence in motherhood were her specialty.īut she did not like this contemporary Medea at all. She had read Aftermath when it came out and remembered the controversy aboutĪ Life’s Work in the British newspapers when she was living over there Surprised to hear that Cusk was given the job of writing a new version of Medea. Interpretations of ancient Greek tragedies were very much the rage on the Sarah had been delighted to be asked along: modern Angela bought two tickets in advance to all theīest shows she always found it easy to find a plus one amongst her friends andĪcquaintances. Holiday – dinner at the Clove Club, a play at the Almeida, drinks at Soho House.Ĭusk’s adaptation of Medea. Had gone out of her way to spoil her the last time she visited London on This was, Sarah acknowledged when she arrived, a trendy place butĪngela would certainly be pleased, and at least it was possible to talk here. Tables occupied by fashionable diners like an atoll encircling a lagoon full ofĮxotic fish.

‘Perhaps evenĪt one of the black velvet booths that formed a ring around numerous tiny She’d felt obliged to ask herĪlong as she was staying with her, but admitted she’d always hoped for an She also wanted to remind me that someone else – Angela, aįriend of hers from London – would be joining us. It was tucked down an unprepossessing set of stairs inside a building thatĪppeared to be, from its shabby exterior, occupied exclusively by cheap tailorsĪnd tax accountants.

Give me directions as the restaurant was hard to find – there was no sign, and Old friend of mine, Sarah, at a restaurant in the centre of town.

Cusk trilogy