It’s election evening in Robert Icke’s “Oedipus,” a contemporary retelling of Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” that have to be the buzziest, if not the chicest, Broadway providing of the autumn season.
The manufacturing, a prestigious London import that opened at Studio 54 on Thursday beneath Icke’s sensible and smooth course, stars a charismatic Mark Robust within the title function. His elegant and urbane Oedipus, a politician on the cusp of a momentous victory, prides himself on not enjoying by the outdated guidelines. A straight talker who has made transparency his calling card, he often veers off script in paroxysms of candor, to the chagrin of Creon (John Carroll Lynch), his brother-in-law who has been steering the marketing campaign to what seems like a landslide victory.
However “count no mortal happy till / he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain,” because the refrain intones on the finish of Sophocles’ tragedy. There is no such thing as a refrain in Icke’s model, however the sentiment holds, as Oedipus unravels the puzzle of his id with the identical relentlessness that has introduced him to the brink of electoral triumph.
Anne Reid, left, and Olivia Reis in “Oedipus.”
(Julieta Cervantes)
A birther conspiracy has been raised by his political opponent, and Oedipus, talking impromptu to reporters on-screen at the beginning of the play, guarantees to launch his delivery certificates and put an finish to the controversy. What’s extra, he vows to reopen an investigation into the loss of life of Laius, the previous chief who died 34 years in the past beneath circumstances which have allowed rumor and innuendo to fester.
Oedipus calls himself Laius’ “successor, the inheritor of his legacy,” and in true Sophoclean style he speaks greater than he is aware of. Jocasta (Lesley Manville in high type), Oedipus’ spouse, was married to Laius, and so Oedipus is occupying his predecessor’s place in additional methods than one.
In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus confronts a plague that has been laying waste to Thebes. In Icke’s drama, which had its premiere in Amsterdam in 2018, the pathogen is political. The civic physique has fallen sick. Oedipus sees himself as a solution to the demagogic manipulation that has wrought havoc. The water is poisoned, financial inequality is uncontrolled and immigrants have grow to be a straightforward goal. Sound acquainted?
Icke’s Oedipus has an Obama-level of confidence in purpose and reasonableness. His direct, pragmatic strategy has seduced voters, however has it deluded him into considering that he has all of the solutions? Oedipus is an ingenious drawback solver. Puzzles entice his eager mind, however he must be taught the distinction between a paradox and a riddle.
Mark Robust, left, and Samuel Brewer in “Oedipus.”
(Julieta Cervantes)
His daughter, Antigone (Olivia Reis), a scholar who has returned for her father’s huge evening, ventures to make the excellence: “One’s got a solution — one’s just something you have to live with?” However Oedipus is in no temper for educational hairsplitting.
A countdown clock marks the time till the election outcomes might be introduced. That hour, as audiences acquainted with the unique tragedy already know, is when Oedipus will uncover his true id.
Merope (Anne Reid), Oedipus’ mom, has unexpectedly turned up at marketing campaign headquarters needing to talk to her son. Oedipus fears it has one thing to do along with his dying father, however she tells him she simply wants a couple of minutes alone with him. Pondering he has every part beneath management, he retains placing her off, not understanding that she has come to warn him about revealing his delivery certificates to the general public.
The dealing with of this plot gadget, with the canny veteran Reid wandering out and in of the drama like an informational time bomb, is just a little clumsy. There’s a prattling facet to Icke’s delaying ways. His “Oedipus” is extra prose than poetry. The household dynamics are properly drawn, although a tad overdone.
Mark Robust and the forged of “Oedipus.”
(Julieta Cervantes)
Reid’s Merope and Reis’ Antigone, ferocious of their alternative ways, refuse to play second fiddle to Manville’s Jocasta in relation to Oedipus’ affections. Manville, who gained an Olivier Award for her efficiency in “Oedipus,” delivers a efficiency as sublimely seething as her Oscar-nominated flip in “Phantom Thread.” Endowed with a formidable hauteur, her Jocasta acts graciously, however with an unmistakable observe of condescension. As Oedipus’ spouse, she assumes sexual pleasure of place, which solely exacerbates tensions with Merope and Antigone.
Oedipus’ sons, Polyneices (James Wilbraham) and Eteocles (Jordan Scowen) are given private backstories, however there may be solely a lot home battle that may be encompassed in a manufacturing that runs just below two hours with out interruption. And Polyneices being homosexual and Eteocles being one thing of a philander could be of extra curiosity in an “Oedipus” restricted collection.
When Sophocles’ tragedy is completed proper, it ought to resemble a mass greater than a morality story. Oedipus’ story has a ceremonial high quality. The boundaries of human understanding are probed as a sacrificial determine challenges the inscrutable order of the universe. Icke, who views classics by means of a contemporary lens (“Hamlet,” “1984”), is maybe extra alert to the sociology than the metaphysics of the tragedy.
Oedipus’ flaws are writ massive in his rash, heated dealings with anybody who stands in his approach. Icke transforms Creon right into a middle-of-the-road political strategist (embodied by Lynch with a mix of vanity and long-suffering endurance) and blind Teiresias (a stark Samuel Brewer) right into a mendicant psychic too pathetic to be a pariah.
Mark Robust and Lesley Manville in “Oedipus.”
(Julieta Cervantes)
However Oedipus’ strengths — the keenness of his thoughts, his heroic dedication to reality and transparency — mustn’t be neglected. Robust, who gained an Olivier Award for his efficiency in Ivo van Hove’s revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” exposes the boyish vulnerability inside the subtle politician in his sympathetically beguiling portrayal.
Wojciech Dziedzic’s costumes remake the protagonist into a contemporary European man. But true to his Historical Greek lineage, this Oedipus is nothing if not paradoxical, suavely having fun with his privilege whereas brandishing his egalitarian views.
The manufacturing takes place on a fishbowl workplace set, designed by Hildegard Bechtler with a scientific and wholly modern austerity. The furnishings are eliminated because the election evening attracts to its conclusion, leaving no place for the characters to cover from the unwelcome data that can upend their lives.
What do they uncover? That every part they thought they understood about themselves was constructed on a lie. For all his brilliance, Oedipus was unable to outrun his destiny, which in Icke’s model has much less to do with the gods and extra to do with natural tendencies and social forces.
When Oedipus and Jocasta be taught who they’re to one another, ardour rushes in earlier than disgrace calls them to account. Freud wouldn’t be shocked. But it surely’s not the psychosexual dimension of Icke’s drama that’s most memorable.
The ending, impeded by a retrospective coda, diminishes the total cathartic affect. However what we’re left with is the astute understanding of a particular form of hubris that afflicts the extra gifted politicians — those that consider they’ve the solutions to society’s issues with out recognizing the ignorance that’s our widespread lot.
