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"And, of course, comedy should be full of tragedy before it was transformed into a glittery, neon thoroughfare "You take on these big classical pieces with trepidation because they are expeditions into the unknown I feel like I have done 10 rounds In 1996, she appeared on the cold, cavernous stage of New York's Liberty Theatre, one of the crumbling playhouses on a block of West 42nd St 22 You just have to give yourself entirely to it " Shaw concurs " On stage at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, those scenes are startling, even terrifying Shaw finds the language of "Medea" full of vacillation ââ‚¬â€? "I must do it, I can't do it," the actress murmurs, slipping eerily and just for a moment into character "The piece I longed to be doing at that moment was `Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' ââ‚¬â€? which I will do one day with Fiona but which she is far too young for now " "And then this translation was the nearest thing to an American play, the scenes between Jason and Medea are terribly like Edward Albee or Tennessee Williams "So we started again in England The actress has a charming, almost saucy smile and a quick laugh , San Francisco and Washington before coming to Broadway for a run through Feb S "I find some of the best things I've done, are some things I didn't really want to do," Shaw concludes " Shaw sits in the living room of a nondescript high-rise apartment near Lincoln Center "You don't have to like it "I think Americans often talk about acting in terms of character, but we don't," explains the woman who is inhabiting a modern-dress "Medea," unnervingly portraying the vengeful fury at the center of Euripides' bloody Greek tragedy "I am a great believer in language and the rhythm of language," says the Irish-born actress, now giving the best performance on a Broadway stage this season I would think that this is the end of it," she says " Both director and star were struck by biting, often bitterly funny remarks Medea hurls at her duplicitous spouse "We talk in terms of scenes She leaps into the darkness and, more often than not, soars "And in the rhythm of the play "We were very keen not to do a Greek play," she says after having already done a highly praised "Electra " After a year's hiatus, they returned to the play in 2002, bringing it first to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, then other American venues including Boston, Ann Arbor, Mich The performer's soft Irish lilt is muted and her manner subdued "All plays only have a certain life At one recent performance, an audience member reportedly needed medical assistance when things got a bit intense "It's physically terribly tiring ââ‚¬â€? everything aches We knew we were on to something Quite a contrast to the creature who makes her first appearance on stage wearing dark glasses, a floral print house dress, a baggy sweater and the grim torment of a wife and mother unsure of what to do " "Medea" began three years ago in Dublin for a six-week run at the Abbey Theatre "The bigger the challenge of a play, the bigger the leap into the imagination Then Shaw and Warner put it to bed for 18 months before recasting it for a three-month London engagement Eliot's monumental meditation on death and resurrection Finding Tragedy, Terror in Modern 'Medea' Jan 1, 3:28 PM EST %meta(topic:apââ‚¬â€?topic:general entertainment;subtopic:other;%) NEW YORK (AP) ââ‚¬â€? When Fiona Shaw talks about acting, it pays to listen An engagement in Paris in March follows before Shaw turns her attention to a third Harry Potter movie Once you get on to a scent really, you can go on enriching it " "It was a toss-up between whether I would do `Hamlet' with Fiona ââ‚¬â€? which is something still in the cards ââ‚¬â€? or `Medea,'" Warner recalls "We knew there was something more in it," Shaw says "That tells you a lot how to play the role And that takes until about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon to recover from "Medea" grew out of her close collaboration with director Deborah Warner, who has directed Shaw in many of her major projects including the title role in Shakespeare's "Richard II " But you hope very much that you are going to discover something that someone has not discovered I want something with that amount of wit and that amount of power And then it's time to start all over again It's quite like ballet or opera or a bit of both," the actress says of her nightly battles There's nothing politically correct about life "I think tragedy should be full of humor," Shaw says Quite a run for a production Shaw and Warner originally didn't want to do at all " Shaw is the kind of actress who takes chances These murders are graphically flung in the face of the audience after a savage showdown between Medea and Jason, her unfaithful husband, played by Jonathan Cake Her 37-minute vehicle? Reciting "The Waste Land," poet T Yet Shaw is more likely to be known here for her film roles in such diverse movies as "My Left Foot," "Three Men and a Little Lady" and the first two Harry Potter extravaganzas in which she portrays Harry's grudging Aunt Petunia "The central spine of the Jason and Medea scenes just leaped out at me because I think I was in the mind of wanting to do a much more contemporary play," she says You can sense she is conserving energy for the violence she will face again on stage that night I know that in one's own life, moments of greatest gravity are also potentially the funniest " Warner was sitting in an airport lounge reading a tough, modern translation of "Medea" by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael Her resume over the last two decades is stuffed with choice roles, in plays ranging from "The Rivals" to "Machinal" to "The Merchant of Venice" to "Electra" to "Hedda Gabler" to "As You Like It" and more for such distinguished troupes as the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Dublin's Abbey Theatre But then Medea is the kind of woman who plots the death not only of her husband's new paramour, but her own children as well I'm shattered now