Medea: Kaddish For The Children

PicturePhoto: Richard Moore

Presented by  Footscray Community Arts Centre and Tashmadada, in association with the Jewish Museum Australia 

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  • A truely fascinating, unique, evocative multi-media work that allows for individual and personal interpretations of the Medea story. (Suzanne Sandow, Stage Whispers)
  • M: Kaddish for the Children is a strong, potent, physical and symbolic work. (Witness Performance)
  • The performance itself is interesting and varied with beautiful artistic elements. The set is beautifully elaborate and has many intriguing elements and fills almost the whole space. Leiser-Moore and Moore deliver engaging performances. (Weekend Notes)
  • ​An intimate raw production. The performance this husband and wife duo weave is magical. (​Ruth Krawat)
  • The play cuts through all the frills to leave you with a powerful message of women, their identity and how the feminine can maintain their strength in any circumstance. (Amira Kay, Psychotherapist, Melbourne)

A Feminist Re-Imagining .....

Medea: Kaddish For the Children is a visual performance work that re-imagines the classic Medea story from the woman’s perspective.It draws on: the classic Euripides Medea text; The Voyage of the Argo by Apollonius of Rhodes; and the Kaddish, the Jewish Mourners Prayer. 
 
In this version Medea is allowed to mourn for the first time as she find her voice to recite the Kaddish and grieve various losses – home, identity and children. Meanwhile, her male counterpart, a.k.a. Jason, is condemned to a machine that will never let him stop moving. As well as invoking the legacy of one of the world’s most ancient myths Medea:Kaddish For The Childrenis a contemporary rift on a modern relationship. The two performers, married for over twenty years, test the fundamental Medean dynamics of love, justice and faith against the parameters of their own relationship.   

​‘Medea: Kaddish For The Children’ premiered at Footscray Community Arts Centre 28th February -9th March 2019 as part of the Women, Arts and Politics program.

​​I am alone
A refugee
I have no country no home, no family no resting place
I am his trophy

CREATIVE TEAM:
Deborah Leiser-Moore: Concept, Co-Writer and Performer 
Richard Moore: Co-Writer and Performer
Jacques Soddell: Sound Designer
Israel Aloni: Choreographer and Outside Eye
Susan Bamford Caleo: Vocal Director and Voice of the Kaddish
Ben Beare: AV/Production Manager and Much More..
Ash Buchanan: Technical Manager and Lighting
Thanks to Peta Tait for dramaturgical assistance

​PRESS:
Stage Whispers​
Australian Arts Review
​Star Weekly
Performance:

2021
SerformanceP Festival
Sao Paulo, Brazil

2019
Footscray Community Arts Centre 
Women, Arts and Politics Program

Development:

2017/2018
Development at Footscray Community Arts Centre

2016
Residencies at:
Domino (Zagreb, Croatia) 
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​2015
Directors Lab Melbourne

La Trobe University