“The Medea Myth” isn’t your average Valentine’s Day play. On the contrary, ISU Theatre’s newest offering, which opens tonight, puts a more stark side of love on display.

The show, which is adapted from Euripides’s Greek tragedy, “Medea,” blends the power of an ancient playwright with a dark aspect of the modern world: domestic violence.

“The Medea Myth” tells the story of Medea, a foreign-born woman whose husband abandons her and her two young children for a princess. Medea, in order to save her kids from growing up as second-class citizens, sacrifices her offspring.

While this might sound like Medea’s revenge against her philandering husband, director Shirley Basfield Dunlap said that’s not the case.

Dunlap said that to look at the situation from Medea’s point of view, we can feel much empathy for her. Like many abused women, Medea’s husband, Jason, took her away from her homeland and isolated her from her friends and family.

Dunlap said that she, herself, understands why Medea took such drastic measures.

“My ancestors were slaves, and they sometimes killed their children so they would not be raised as slaves,” she said, citing Toni Morrison’s book, “Beloved,” as an example of such occurrences. “Unfortunately, it’s always been seen as her getting her ultimate revenge.”

In order to incorporate more modern messages about domestic abuse, there were some major changes made to the structure of the play.

First, Dunlap made sure that women of all nationalities make up the chorus “so it could be seen that domestic violence is a global disease,” she said.

In addition, the playwright himself, Dan Plato, chairman of the department of theater at the University of North Dakota and of the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival regional playwriting program, took out the classical “Greek chorus” and replaced it with real-life stories of battered women.

This change, Dunlap said, “brings it a little bit closer to home.”

This new part of the play also proved to be emotionally exhausting for the cast of 15.

Dunlap said that during the course of rehearsal, at least one member had to drop out because the issues in the play were dredging up some painful parts of her own life.

“It’s a drain on you,” Dunlap said. “My biggest fear was for those who can’t handle it. You never know what it might trigger in the audience. We’ve tried to make the best of what may come.”

One way in which they are trying to educate people is through a panel discussion, which will be held this Sunday, Feb. 16, right after the 2 p.m. performance.

The panel will be moderated by Susan Carlson, professor of English, and will include Ron Sotak, assistant attorney general of Iowa; Robin Teske, a visiting associate professor from James Madison University; Julie Minkler, a professor of English, and Brooks Morse, Ph.D., a senior staff psychologist at the Student Counseling Center.

They will discuss issues brought up in “The Medea Myth,” and audience members are encouraged to ask questions.

Other notables about the play include the scenic designer, Brenda Jones, and the costume designer, Myrna Colley-Lee, whom Dunlap worked with at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

“It’s really neat how they incorporate the present tense with the past,” Dunlap said. “Brenda’s set is very eclectic.”

Dunlap hopes that both men and women come to see the play because of its relevant messages.

“I felt that it was an important piece to show here in Iowa,” she said. “I wanted to bring up the disease of domestic violence.”

“The Medea Myth” opens tonight in Fisher Theater. It will also run Feb. 15, Feb.21, and Feb 22. All evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. There are matinee shows on Feb. 16 and Feb. 23 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available at the door.