“Unfortunately the story is pretty timeless and a very scary one,” says Kristofferson. “The worst thing about it is that the younger woman is a princess so he will now get the glorification of being married into royalty, when she had left all of that behind for him.

“You have an empathy with her to a point but then she loses everyone when she kills. She’s not mad, it’s very deliberate, so what is it that drives her to do that?”

As well as the universal theme of love and betrayal, this Medea is a very contemporary production. It retains its classical time period, says Kristofferson, but playwright Tom Paulin’s language ensures it will be gripping for contemporary viewers. A musical score influenced by the blues and some African dancing, enhances the show’s modern feel.

As a production by Northern Broadsides, a theatre company always well-received by Liverpool audiences, the piece has also been given the Barrie Rutter treatment.

“I’ve never worked with a director like Barrie (Northern Broadsides’ artistic director) before,” says Kristofferson. “He has very clear ideas of what he wants and not all directors work that way. He knows what it is he’s trying to achieve and he is extremely passionate about bringing that vision to life even though he doesn’t know exactly how it will do that.

“When someone’s really excited about what they’re doing it brings about another dynamic completely.”

Because of this, the actress, who has played numerous stage and TV roles, kept an open mind about how she would portray Medea.

“I came to rehearsals with a very clean slate, I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about how I was going to play Medea because I wasn’t quite sure how Barrie wanted it,” she says. “I thought if I stamped a definite blueprint on it, it would be very difficult to move away from it.

“I don’t think you could play a role like that without it being extremely hard work. You have to pull out all the stops and just when you think you’ve done enough you realise it’s not quite enough.”

MEDEA is at the Everyman from February 23-27.