THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
By Sophocles, a new adaptation by Ella Hickson
Old Vic Theatre, The Cut, London SE1 until March 29, 2025
Greeks and Stars may be one way this theater season will be remembered. Just a few months after Robert Icke's modern, surgically precise, update on Sophocles' great tragedy starring Lesley Manville and Mark Strong, we have another production starring Oscar winner Rami Malek and just this week another Oscar winner, Brie Larson, opens in a modern grunge Gen Z take on Sophocles' Elektra (sic). That one has Stockard Channing too. So, the Greeks are in vogue.
This Oedipus couldn't present more of a contrast with Icke's. Director Matthew Warchus, working with a new adaptation by Ella Hickson, has engaged the great choreographer Hofesh Shechter to draw out whole new dimensions to the piece. Known for his spectacular ensembles of writhing, ritualising, humanity set to a heavy percussive, often techno beat, here again Shechter also composes the music. Warchus brings his characteristic clarity to Hickson's text, which is wonderfully pared down (just 100 minutes), and the blending of this and the dance sequences forges a unified creative vision which is always compelling and often mesmerizing.
The story of the Theban King who unwittingly kills his father and sleeps with his mother and then gouges his eyes out in repentance (sorry for the spoiler!) is not short of plot but what Warchus and Shechter have done here is move beyond that by creating a wonderfully fluid and visually ravishing piece which tempers the histrionics and leads us to reflect more on the big themes here – faith vs rationality, fanaticism and the threats of populism.
The typical Greek chorus is replaced by Shechter's wonderfully diverse ensemble creating a patchwork of a mixed society and who collectively bring different emotional shades to each scene they inhabit. At the outset they appear as a menacing mob but by the end they're moving to a classical piece, order have been reestablished.
Oedipus needs to decide between ordering the whole city to evacuate or giving in to the clamor of religious zealots fired up by the rabble rousing Creon (Nicholas Khan) to consult the Oracle, Tiresias, (a scolding Cecilia Noble) about what to do next. He makes the wrong call.
Hickson introduces a climate change theme (which thankfully doesn't feel bolted on) putting the city state in peril because it has been ravaged by a prolonged drought. Oedipus thinks by sharing even the palace's own supply he will appease the populace.
Tom Visser's beautiful sculptural lighting is exemplary here. One moment we're bathed in an ochre colored, parched, landscape, the next we're in the sepulchral gloom of a palace where intrigue rules and sliding doors partly open to reveal the unsettled and unsettling chorus
who are hovering just beyond. Rae Smith's designs are 'period lite' with Varma elegantly swathed in flowing robes and Malek looking suitably uncomfortable in his oversized designer suit.
Oedipus is an intriguingly awkward character, perfect for Malek. He starts off as a confident, performing politician and 'family man' but then we witness his growing disconnection as his world spins out of control and he loses his grip. By contrast Indira Varma's Jocasta is serenely sane and rational throughout. Her plea for rationality, though, is odd as this was long before any Reformation and here mortals were merely playthings of the Gods.
Jocasta argues that the people need to be able to struggle with nuance and difficulty instead of blind faith, which is quite something for a 2500 year old piece. The play is great on the role of Faith but also is a warning about the dire consequences when faith curdles into fanaticism in the hands of cynical manipulators.
Classical purists will no doubt be ticking off their check list of infringements on how Greek Tragedy should be done
, but that's rather like the British Standards Institute entering a widget factory and checking the machine controls, this piece dispenses with most of that and is perfectly fine for it. The dance creates the vibe, the design establishes the mood, and the plot provides the superstructure but there's a lot more going on here than a story.
