All Gods are Bastards [or, 2 Oedipi for the price of 1]
Friday, February 21st, 2003 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthTo the Rosemary Branch Theatre, Miles From Anywhere, North London last night, for a double bill of Greek(ish) drama.
First off, Oedipus Rex - Sophocles, c. 425BC. Still not a nice story. Two Minds Theatre Company present it perhaps over-literally: Oedipus starts off shouting a lot, indignant at accusations that he is the unclean one who has brought a curse on the land. Then he shouts some more because it becomes evident that he is the unclean one who has killed his father 'at a place where three roads meet' [I could make a spirited aside about Hecate and the Triple Goddess here. But I won't]. And yes, that well-preserved artistocrat with the post-colonial sneer is Mommy.
Yep, Oedipus has been framed as conclusively as [insert non-PC simile of your choice here]. The fact that he's been set up by the gods themselves is remarkable only in that no one seems especially bothered about that aspect of it.
Cue suicide and self-mutilation. Oedipus screams very loudly and the lighting becomes redder. Moral of the story, I am reliably informed, is 'respect the gods - this is what they do to the innocent'.
Interval.
The second half, Oedipus at the Crossroads, is a more modern (1977) take on the story, by Jeremy Kingston - who 'wrote [the play] because he wondered how it came about that Oedipus, presumably not wanting to kill his father and marry his mother, did precisely that'. This is a far lighter piece with some splendid one-liners ('What's so rivetting about my ankles?') which - of course - don't work out of context. The parts are played by the same actors but the set-up is revealed to be quite another sort of plot. Blind prophet Tiresias is a villain and a fraud; Laius' affection for his slain servant (in whose defence he is supposed to unknowingly attack his son Oedipus, thus permitting the 'self-defense' plea) is shown to be remarkably pragmatic; the Delphic Oracle is portrayed as a doped-up lunatic; and the kind-hearted shepherd is revealed as much more than a lovably gruff rogue.
It's a very Seventies rendition, all about questioning authority and smashingthe State established power structures. Oh, and what happens if people try to second-guess their fate, the Fates, the Gods?
Anyway, that's not a crossroads: it's a meeting of three ways. A Tri-via.
Recommended, but it finishes tomorrow :)
First off, Oedipus Rex - Sophocles, c. 425BC. Still not a nice story. Two Minds Theatre Company present it perhaps over-literally: Oedipus starts off shouting a lot, indignant at accusations that he is the unclean one who has brought a curse on the land. Then he shouts some more because it becomes evident that he is the unclean one who has killed his father 'at a place where three roads meet' [I could make a spirited aside about Hecate and the Triple Goddess here. But I won't]. And yes, that well-preserved artistocrat with the post-colonial sneer is Mommy.
Yep, Oedipus has been framed as conclusively as [insert non-PC simile of your choice here]. The fact that he's been set up by the gods themselves is remarkable only in that no one seems especially bothered about that aspect of it.
Cue suicide and self-mutilation. Oedipus screams very loudly and the lighting becomes redder. Moral of the story, I am reliably informed, is 'respect the gods - this is what they do to the innocent'.
Interval.
The second half, Oedipus at the Crossroads, is a more modern (1977) take on the story, by Jeremy Kingston - who 'wrote [the play] because he wondered how it came about that Oedipus, presumably not wanting to kill his father and marry his mother, did precisely that'. This is a far lighter piece with some splendid one-liners ('What's so rivetting about my ankles?') which - of course - don't work out of context. The parts are played by the same actors but the set-up is revealed to be quite another sort of plot. Blind prophet Tiresias is a villain and a fraud; Laius' affection for his slain servant (in whose defence he is supposed to unknowingly attack his son Oedipus, thus permitting the 'self-defense' plea) is shown to be remarkably pragmatic; the Delphic Oracle is portrayed as a doped-up lunatic; and the kind-hearted shepherd is revealed as much more than a lovably gruff rogue.
It's a very Seventies rendition, all about questioning authority and smashing
Anyway, that's not a crossroads: it's a meeting of three ways. A Tri-via.
Recommended, but it finishes tomorrow :)
