Oedipus – Review of 2025 Old Vic Production in London

Ancient Greek tragedy is universally admired but few directors are prepared to produce a version that is faithful to the original script. The poetry may be clear enough depending on the translation but how do you deal with the choral parts that are chanted or spoken with accompanying dances perhaps. We know almost nothing about how they were being done. The Stratford Festival of Canada staged Oedipus Rex in 1953 using masks and being otherwise faithful to the text with reasonable success but it has never tried to do that with the handful of plays from the Golden Age of Athens since then.
All productions are done using adaptations and always with mixed results. Unfortunately, the old adage that the more beautiful the adaptation, the less faithful it probably is to the original frequently applies. The Old Vic production is co-directed by Hofesh Shechter and Matthew Warchus. He is one of the best English directors and she is a choreographer and musician of the highest order as well as the director of the Hofesh Shechter Company of dancers.
Sophocles’ play is adapted by Ella Hickson and her version takes so many liberties that the title has been changed from Oedipus Rex to Oedipus. Warchus and Shechter want to capture the spirit of the play and not the literal script that has survived.
Warchus takes care of the powerful acting given by the principal characters and the dramatic story that unfolds in ancient Thebes. The city is in a desperate state and the citizens want to know the reason. Has King Oedipus done something to bring the anger of of the gods on Thebes as divine punishment?
The story is well known but we witness its slow revelation as in a good whodunnit. King Laius, the former king, was killed at a certain crossroads many years ago. Prince Oedipus of Corinth comes to Thebes, marries the widow of Laius and has two children by her, Antigone and Ismene.
He was tossed out by his mother because a prophecy had foretold that he would kill his father and marry his mother. It is too horrible to contemplate and his mother gives him to a shepherd with the certainty that the baby would die of exposure. The unfolding story reveals that Laius was his father and Queen Jocasta (Indira Varma) was his mother. Unknown to Oedipus, the prophecy was fulfilled.
The self-assured Oedipus (Rami Malek) fearlessly sends his brother-in-law Creon (Nicholas Khan) to Delphi to seek information about Laius’s killer and asks the seer Tiresias (Cecilia Noble) about it and the reason for the drought in Thebes. Eventually he learns the devastating truth and becomes aware of his hubris and blindness in not realizing it sooner. He gouges his eyes out as self-punishment for his prior blindness and is left with nothing except his young daughter Antigone to act as his eyes and wander around Greece.
That dramatic story is the basis of Sophocles’ play that Ella has adapted into comprehensible and dramatic dialogue. Long speeches are cut short and confrontation among the characters are inserted. It is a superb job of handling a difficult play.
But what do we do with the Chorus of Thebans for whom the choral odes are written? Enter Hofesh Shechter who composes some dramatic music to reflect the moods of the play and choreographs dances to be performed by the Cho
rus. They have no lines to speak and there is no chanting. The dancers are athletic wild, dramatic and energetic. They illustrate the mood of each scene and are a major part of the production. The dancers and the actors collaborate superbly as directed by the two directors.
Warchus and Schecher have produced a play that is far from the words of Sophocles but faithful to the great drama. It was a thrill to see a collaborative effort with outstanding actors and dancers that were able to take us spiritually from the stage of the Old Vic to the theatre of Dionysus in old Athens.
Oedipus, based on the play by Sophocles, adapted by Ella Hickson, in a production by the Old Vic in association with Hofesh Shecter Company continues until March 20, 2025, at the Old Vic Theatre, The Cut, London, England. http://www.oldvictheatre.com/

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Rami Malek as Oedipus and Indira Varma as Jocasta. Photograph: Manuel Harlan

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