Not much new to say about '50s malaise "Medea"

Pity poor Medea.

In the play "Medea Knows Best" at Capitol Hill Arts Center, the mythic avenger hooks up with a dashing military hero, Jason, and expects a fairybook continuation of their whirlwind romance.

Too bad they settle down in the ultra-square and repressive suburb of Corinth, where the hausfraus are as robotic as Stepford wives.

And what a pity the neighborhood Greek chorus of domestic goddesses, harmonizing on renditions of pop oldies ("Catch a Falling Star," "Chapel of Love"), can't save Medea from adultery and mayhem — nor rescue this production by Seattle's Nebunele Theatre from tedium.

To be fair, "Medea Knows Best" doesn't just want to mock. It also wants to reveal the lonely hollowness of the mass media's idealized vision of post-World War II American domesticity.

But this is awfully well-trodden ground on stage and screen. And doggedly plowing it again, without turning up much that's new, makes for a long and not terribly illuminating show.

Workshopped here, then debuted in San Francisco, "Medea Knows Best" certainly does employ a potentially interesting framing device for this adaptation of an ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, and sticks to it.

The team-designed costumes (a study in flounces and pastels) and set (a ticky-tacky housing development) help transform the old story of a woman wooed, spurned and revenged into a mock-1950s sitcom, playing out inside a giant TV set.

Scripted by Claytie Mason (who also directs) and Alissa Mortenson, "Medea Knows Best" recycles (and re-recycles) plenty of honey-I'm-home 1950s stereotypes.

Between songs, that infernally perky housewife trio (Mortenson, Yana Kesala and Brynna Jourden), extols the joys of cooking, knitting and tending babies, to the skeptical but game newcomer, Medea (Heather Persinger).

Meanwhile, the guys are clueless and paternalistic: King Creon (David Edwards) is a Babbitty civic booster in a loud tie. And Jason (Laurence Hughes) turns into Mr. Conformity and dumps Medea for his boss Creon's pretty daughter (Davie-Blue).

As discontent brews in "Medea Knows Best," the bubble of so-called normalcy is punctured. And even the chaotic, scary outside world seems more inviting — to the characters, and, alas, to this viewer as well.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com