Queensland Theatre’s modern Medea opened to a standing ovation and hardly a dry eye, with two incredible young actors leading this contemporary take on an ancient Greek tragedy.

Orlando Dunn-Mura and Felix Pearn in Queensland Theatre’s Medea. Photo © David Kelly

Leon and Jasper are locked in their bedroom, playing and fighting and imagining and comforting each other while their parents argue outside. The boys wonder about the future, practice fencing, have Nerf gun battles, and feed their goldfish.

Leon is the oldest, on the cusp of becoming a teenager but still earnest and playful. Jasper is smaller, and more sensitive, looking to his big brother for comfort and wisdom.

Their mother, Medea, appears only three times, increasingly frenzied and emotional beneath a veneer of normalcy as she tells them to clean their room and helps them get dressed.

Written by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks, with the original concept by Sarks after Euripides, this haunting version of the Medea myth doesn’t focus on the titular sorceress or her lover Jason, but on their two young sons.

Originally commissioned and staged by Belvoir in 2012, this Medea has since been performed (and acclaimed) nationally...