New York, March 7, 2008 – Award winning Jamaican Playwright and actor David Heron has marked his return to the Off Broadway stage with excellent reviews for his work in the highly successful revival of the Greek tragedy Medea, which recently concluded a limited run at the world famous National Black Theater in Harlem.
Writing for the Harlem News Group, respected theater critic Linda Armstrong wrote that “Medea is mind blowing…Something that you will experience profoundly and that you will not soon forget.”
In a cast that included Tony Award winning actress Trezana Beverley, Heron, who played the role of The Messenger, was singled out by Armstrong who wrote “David Heron does an outstanding job as he graphically describes the events that Medea has had a direct hand in.”
On the website nytheatre.com. , critic Kat Chamberlain described the production as “Thundering fury…. I saw the passion from this production and it was magnificent,” and added that “David Heron’s Messenger is particularly effective, with a colorful delivery that does not go over the top…”
In a new adaptation by acclaimed scholar Nicholas Rudall, the play tells the story of the Sorceress/Princess Medea, who is left for another woman by her husband, Jason of The Argonauts, and decides to seek revenge at any cost.
In addition to Tony Award winner Beverley, who won Broadway’s highest honour for her role in the original 1976 production of For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Was Enuf, the cast featured reknowned Broadway theater actor and singer Dathan B. Williams as Jason, British born star Ian Stuart as King Aegeus and model turned actor Renauld White- most famous as the first ever African American model to grace the cover of GQ magazine in the 1970’s.
The production was directed by Award winning actress and Director Petronia Paley, whose credits include Another World, Guiding Light, Electra and the Broadway revival of On Golden Pond opposite James Earl Jones.
Medea marks Heron’s third Off Broadway appearance in less than one year.
He made his Shakespearean debut to excellent reviews as Laertes opposite One Life To Live star Timothy D. Stickney in Hamlet at The Workshop Theater last April, and appeared immediately afterwards in The New Federal Theater’s popular revival of Errol John’s classic Caribbean play Moon On A Rainbow Shawl, produced by American theater legend Woodie King Jr .
Heron’s own play, Love and Marriage and New York City enjoyed great success at The National Black Theater Festival held in Winston Salem, North Carolina last August, and will tour Toronto, Canada in May .
After that assignment, Heron heads to Virginia to appear in The Taming Of The Shrew and Othello with the Virginia Shakespeare Company through the end of July.