A Complex Greek Tragedy, Starkly Staged

By JOHN BONAZZO

STAFF WRITER

For the production of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the Theatrical Outreach Program (TOP) trimmed away all the frills and gave this classically tragic story room to breathe. This production did not give the audience a ‘complex.’ Instead, thanks to shrewd directorial and design choices and intense acting, its message came through clearer and the playwright’s words rang even truer.

At the play’s beginning, King Oedipus is scrambling to find the murderer of Laius, his predecessor, so as to save his land from plague.  He ignores his advisors, brother-in-law Creon and blind prophet Tiresias, who insist that finding the murderer will be Oedipus’ undoing. Oedipus is also dealing with the prophecy that sent him from his homeland, which states that he will couple with his mother and kill his father. This worries him, since he once killed a robber who matched Laius’ description. A shepherd then arrives, saying that the man who raised Oedipus is dead but that this man was not his father. Thus, it is revealed that Laius is his father, and his wife Jocasta is the mother who gave him up. She kills herself and Oedipus blinds himself, providing a grim conclusion to this dark tale.

Directors Bobby Dallas, GSB ’14, and Vincent Pellizzi, GSB ’15, staged the show sparingly, letting the story and the actors telling it take center stage. Their decision to have the audience seated onstage heightened the immediacy and made the audience feel like a part of the production.

There was no set, save for a scrim at the back of the stage. This too put the focus on the words. The use of modern dress brought the story to the present day, while keeping with the show’s overall vision; it is easier to take Oedipus seriously in a suit than in Greek finery.

One technical element of import was the lighting. In most cases it was used sparingly, to make the show darker and more threatening. However, at strategic moments the lights took on a blood-red hue, echoing the bloody action on stage. Also, at one point the entire stage was in pitch darkness, foreshadowing the sinister events that would occur when the lights came up.

The actors delivered their long strings of dialogue with perfect emotion. David Schillinger, FCRH ’16, was a wonderfully tortured Oedipus; he brought forth the pain of this tragic hero and his awful fall from grace. Rachel Sternlicht, FCRH ’17, put Jocasta’s tenderness front and center at the play’s beginning and switched effortlessly to great sadness once the secret was revealed. Christiana Shovlin, FCRH ’16, took on a male role and conveyed the conflicted emotions of the unfairly accused Creon with grace. Fellow gender-bender Jane Skapek, FCRH ’16, played the grim double bill of Tiresias and the shepherd and laid bare their alternately dark and lighthearted spirits.  John Murray, FCRH ’16, as a priest who advises Oedipus, delivered two great monologues at the beginning and toward the end of the play. A three-person Greek chorus rounded out the cast, commenting on Oedipus’ awful situation with great emotion.

TOP’s Oedipus Rex put this dark show in a new light, presenting the play at its core and dispelling any preconceived notions. It may not be a lighthearted work, but presented this well it does give a jolt of theatrical joy

The creative team reflected on how it retrofitted this classic work for today’s audience. In their directors’ note, Dallas and Pellizzi said their mission was to present the show with “a more modern approach in the acting and style.”

This choice was made “to increase the strength of Sophocles’ writing,” Dallas later said. “We made our take much more intimate so the language and the strength of our actors would take precedence.”