Theatre Review - Oedipus

Lesley Manville and Mark Strong in Oedipus [Manuel Harlan]

ROBERT Icke’s muscular adaptation of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy originally opened in Amsterdam in 2018. In this modern-retelling, Oedipus (Mark Strong) is a politician on the eve of election victory.

He sits down in his campaign headquarters with his wife Jocasta (Lesley Manville) and children, Polyneices (James Wilbraham), Antigone (Phia Saban), and Eteocles (Jordan Scowen) to celebrate certain victory.

A digital clock counts down behind them as they wait for the votes to be counted.

But then a bothersome man, Teiresias (Samuel Brewer) comes calling, prophesying doom, while Oedipus’s mother, Merope (June Watson) wants to speak to her son urgently.

Oedipus is a charismatic leader, unaware of his transgressions, whose main flaw is arrogance.

In the brilliant filmed clip that opens the show, he promises a crowd of supporters that he will produce his birth certificate, to prove he is a worthy leader, and find the killers of Laius, the former ruler and Jocasta’s late husband.

His campaign aide, his wife’s brother, Creon (Michael Gould), is concerned by Oedipus’s recklessness – going off script in front of the media. Gradually, we realise the clock is also counting the moments he has left before past secrets are laid bare, and there is some clever foreshadowing of the tragedy that awaits.

Putting a new spin on events, in Icke’s version Jocasta reveals an abusive relationship with Laius and that she was just 13 years old when she gave birth to their son.

Oedipus is compelling from beginning to end, despite the two-hour running time. Strong and Manville’s central relationship is utterly credible, their desire and affection for one another palpable, and they are supported by a fine ensemble.

Until January 4
wyndhamstheatre.co.uk/

Orignally published by Camden New Journal