Cast Announced for MEDUSA at Summerhall

The cast for Heather Marshall's Medusa has been announced, with the show making its stage premiere at Summerhall this March.

The show combines ancient myth with queer rave culture, Scots language and centuries of pathologised female rage. It runs March 6 through 8 at Summerhall in Edinburgh.

Clare Nolan makes her professional debut as Medusa, following her training at Guilford Acting School, where her credits include Flying Ant Day, Jane Eyre and The Unimaginable Sisters. Long time Creative Electric collaborator Rosalind McAndrew joins as Athena. A neurodiverse, queer, working class performer whose stage credits include Burst and Dandelion (Creative Electric), Falling Star (Starcatchers) and Inside Pussy Riot (Les Enfants Terribles). TV Credits include Pineapple, Dinosaur and Casualty, BBC. 

Hailing from Edinburgh, Conrad Williamson joins the cast as Poseidon, with screen credits in Tetralogue (Valdesiga Productions), The Outrun (Brock Media / Arcade Pictures) and Fear (Wild Mercury Production / Prime Video. On Stage, credits include Trainspotting Live (Seabright Live), Home is Where The Heart Is (Birds of Paradise / Creative Electric) and Brecht: Fragments (Raven Row). Queer, mixed heritage circus artist and performance maker Sadiq Ali joins as Sthenno, fresh from a UK tour of the Sadiq Ali Company’s Tell Me. Other works include The Chosen Haram and Stuntman (Superfan). Completing the cast from Cumbernauld is Olivia Caw as Euryale. Stage credits include Common Tongue by Fraser Young, PALS by Mirren Wilson and Transpotting Live (Seabright Live). 

With access at its heart, Medusa is for everyone - from theatre lover, to raver, to someone searching for queer, disabled community - and will offer a variety of ways to experience the show. Four performances from Friday 6 - Sunday 8 March, across varied time slots, will feature integrated BSL, with a sign interpreter moving alongside the cast through the space, acting as a type of Greek chorus. Each performance is relaxed  with the opportunity to take time out in  a quiet space, utilise ear defenders or sunglasses while still following the show. For audiences who experience chronic pain, they will be able to lie down. If audience members need to move around they can do that too. The Saturday matinee performance will be low sensory for those who experience acute sensory overwhelm, with lower light and sound and smaller audience numbers in the space. 

A powerful new piece of theatre that breaks open the mythical Medusa - an ancient woman never given a myth of her own, whose whole existence is rooted in misogyny. This contemporary Scots reimagining explores the impact of hormones on the body, and the pathologisation of the menstrual cycle and its effects on mental and physical health and trauma response, through one of mythology’s most notable figures of “female rage”. 

Evolving from Marshall's own personal experience, Medusa invites audiences under the prescription pad of Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder, and the way it ravages both the physical and mental health of those it affects, all under a banging electropop soundtrack, blending queer rave culture, mythology and performance into one transformational theatrical experience. 

Created by writer Marshall and directed by Jen McGregor, the creative team is completed by Costume Designer Chanel O’Conor aka Conor Macdonald (Drag Race UK Season 6); choreographer Sula Castle; sound design and operation from Parasol Wu and Jack Oldcorn respectively, and lighting design and operation from Jamie Heseltine. They are supported by production manager Lee Davis and stage manager Judy Stewart.  Medusa is presented by a predominately Queer, Disabled and Neurodiverse group of creatives, and produced by Andrew Eaton-Lewis (Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival).  

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