The Abjected Feminine as a cultural expression in Lochhead's plays: Medea and Thebans

The Scottish Parliament re-established after devolution in 1999 revived nationalistic interests in Scotland. The new autonomous state searched for artistic expression of the contemporary cultural climate. Theatre and the political potential of the classics were seen as a rich medium for cultural revisions. Glasgow offered a variety of contemporary readings of Greek tragedies. Theatre babel's project The Greeks in 2000, supported and funded by the Scottish Government, commissioned three established Scottish playwrights to produce their versions of Oedipus, Medea and Electra. David Greig, Liz Lochhead and Tom MacGrath offered distinct authorial versions. In all of these classical re-visions Scotland took a central cultural position, as opposed to its previously favoured marginalised national image. Lochhead offered an idiosyncratic female and cultural reading with her adaptations, which is the main subject of the current monograph.