New play has big screen power that can only take you so far, we feel…
GREEK drama can be tough at the best of times and ‘Oedipus’ has a difficult basic plot premise – son marries mother.
Of course, it isn’t as simple as presented – and the play shows how this happens and starts with an interrogation and an accusation that the Prince son murdered his Father King (and the idea is that the said son is not the biological product of this marriage).
‘Oedipus’
In the lead parts are two very well-known established actors and it’s not every day there’s an opportunity to see an Oscar winner Rami Malek (‘Bohemian Rhaspody’ 2019) up close and personal and doing his work on the London stage, as King Oedipus.
Opposite him, as his wife, (and mother Jocasta) is Indira Varma, a luminary of the London stage with a strong list of big and small screen credits as well.
This is the central relationship of the play – between King Oedipus and Queen Jocasta and this is quite a political play, despite the obvious very personal dimensions.
Played to a public audience (quite different from many other plays that offer you a window into private experience), this is a slick production with strong acting but what it lacks is real emotional heft and that seems a shame because there is so much talent and ability here and yet the actors who all do decently – with Cecilia Noble (Tiresias), Joseph Mydell (Corinthian) and Nicolas Woodeson (Shepherd) all shining in lesser supporting roles – and Malek and Varma are not bad – all appear to be acting in almost self contained silos. Nicholas Khan as the priest Creon is also fine but all these characters appear as though they are in different plays. For example, Noble walks the right side of a fine line, in our opinion, as a reliable soothsayer – who could, alternatively, just as well appear in a panto…
You don’t feel these characters connecting on stage together.
Malek and Varma do not play two people caught up in a mad passion – maybe that is because they don’t believe or care for it – their interpretation is different.
These two characters as presented are cooler, more cunning and prepossessed with the idea and lure of power; they are not in love or even loving, it’s an arrangement and gives them both what they need to function and even thrive.
Maybe, it could be Matthew Warchus’ – artistic director of The Old Vic, where it is currently showing and listed as co-director for this – choice and interpretation, as a study of leadership and managing dissent, dissonance and civil strife – certainly these are themes in Sophocles’ original Greek drama but again we can’t say how this production, which has contemporary clothing and is set notionally in Greece (place names remain the same), differs in writer Ella Hickson’s adaptation.
Also, if you don’t know that there is a considerable dance element with Hofesh Shechter Company providing a chorus that becomes more and more substantial – with a chance to feel the play, rather than try to understand it, you might get a little lost, especially at the beginning. You need to be feeling this right from the start, not just half-way through or at the end, when you realise what their dance is trying to do on an emotional level – take it out and you do wonder how much the play would actually lose?
These might seem overly harsh on paper – it’s not an easy drama and The Oracle, play of faith and reason and the actual drought and desperation of the citizens, are all interwoven into the original and are interesting elements but never come alive in the way that perhaps they should.
Having not seen a lot of Greek drama on the London stage recently, this was hard work – not dull or unstimulating but just how does this all hang together?
Malek is at his best when playing a shifty, nervous, violent chancer and the play is at its best when he is in this mode.
Incidentally, all the children* in this production appear to have South Asian backgrounds from their names. There are two daughters in the play – Antigone and Ismene.
If you appreciate classical Greek drama and know the original, this might work a lot better but for those more used to contemporary fare, it is too esoteric, abstract and too far removed from our normal experience to have a powerful impact as presented last night (February 4). Disappointing in short. (Sailesh Ram)
Acv rating: ** (out of five).
* includes all understudies
All photographs here: ©ManuelHarlan
Listing
‘Oedipus’ (January 21) to March 29 at The Old Vic, 103, The Cut, London SE1 8NB.
More info/tickets https://www.oldvictheatre.com/stage/oedipus/
