←Recommendations of MURDERING MEDEA

What a fantastic play! Lucy carries a burden that requires attention. The sheer cleverness of Medea as mentor in this sensational comic vehicle of social introspection makes this play a top tier dramatic feat. You will laugh, you will think, you will feel, and you will have something to talk about in the aftermath. Brilliant work, Aly!

There is a lot to unpack here. Girlypop True Crime podcaster Lucy has fled to a seedy Pittsburgh motel ostensibly for content purposes, but really to escape her attentively dominating boyfriend and make a bodily choice of which he (and the sponsors) would certainly not approve. While there she encounters the mythical child slayer Medea, who encourages to take control of her own life - and perhaps take the lives of those that stand in her way. Be prepared to get punched in the gut more than once. And to like it. Powerful stuff here.

This is a caustic cautionary tale, a podcast parable for our times not easily redacted, "edited out". From the dead-bolting of the door in a creepy motel room, the references to gun violence, domestic abuse and even just the allusions made to Medea --before she arrives to debate motherhood with Lucy -- the audience knows they are in for a ride. A very dark one but with Kantor's signature laugh-out-uncomfortably-loud humor. Just who is the Monster of the Week?

The unhinged journey Aly Kantor takes us on in Murdering Medea is one that demands to be experienced. There's laughter, there's blood, and there's a lot worth listening to and taking to heart -- particularly about what it means to be a woman in Post-Roe America. The Playwrights Thriving Reading Series presented Murdering Medea as part of its 2025 season, and I, for one, can't wait to see where this play goes!