Oedipus has come to die.
As a young man, the former king of Thebes outwitted the deadly Sphinx but also committed terrible, if inadvertent, sins — slaying his natural father, marrying his widowed mother. Now, blinded by his own hand, Oedipus wanders Greece a beggar, his royal retinue reduced to daughters Ismene and Antigone.
But in Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles’ melancholy meditation on age and loss, this once-great hero finally concludes his tortured, penitent journey.
“In some ways, Oedipus is a Job-like figure,” says Philip Boehm, artistic director of Upstream Theater, who will direct the U.S. premiere of a new translation by David Slavitt for WUSTL’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences.
Yet unlike Job, “Oedipus accepts his fault, and understands his own fall from grace,” Boehm says. “This is what makes him a tragic hero.”
“All throughout his life, the fates have conspired against him,” Boehm adds. “His travails have aged him beyond his years.” And yet, “his enormous suffering has brought some measure of atonement.
“In death, he will find peace, and the site of his tomb shall lend power to those who gave him sanctuary in his final days.”
People are afraid …
The second of Sophocles’ three surviving Theban plays, Oedipus at Colonus is set decades after Oedipus Rex, the playwright’s masterwork, in which this good but arrogant king discovers the true identities of his parents. (And which Boehm recently directed for Upstream.) It is set shortly before Antigone, which chronicles the civil wars of his surviving family.
Yet of the three, Oedipus at Colonus was written last, and indeed was likely Sophocles’ final work. Assistant director Rob Henke, PhD, professor of drama, notes that, according to classical legend, Sophocles, at age 89, defended himself from charges of dementia — brought by his son, impatient for an inheritance — by reading exerpts from the play in court. He was acquitted.
As the story opens, Oedipus and Antigone arrive in Colonus, a small village in the shadow of Athens. The god Apollo has decreed that Oedipus will be “a blessing to the land” in which he is buried, but local villagers (represented by the Chorus) seek to drive him off. Their hands are stayed by Oedipus’ residual nobility, and by the arrival of Theseus, the Athenian king.
“People are afraid of Oedipus,” says Boehm. “They worry that there is something tainted or polluted about him. But Theseus, in his wisdom, is able to see beyond the fear. He offers Oedipus sympathy and protection.”
Events come to a head with the arrival of Creon, current ruler of Thebes. Seeking to deny Athens the blessing of Oedipus’ grave, Creon badgers the old man to return to Thebes. Failing that, he abducts his daughters.
“There are so many clichés about Greek drama,” Boehm notes. “But we don’t want a declamatory production. It would be easy to play Oedipus from on high, but he’s too … cantankerous. We want to capture his urgency, his gravity, his sense of physical threat.
“But there also remains something poetic about him,” Boehm adds. “This play is 2,500 years old, and it still has the power to move us. It’s about transience and loss, about old age and death.
“These can be hard sells at a university, where there is such exuberant youth and energy,” Boehm concludes. “But that’s the power of live theatre. It allows us to experience Oedipus, rather than to just read about him.
“We can attune ourselves to his inner transformation, and vibrate to its resonance.”
Cast and crew
The cast of 15 is led by J. Samuel Davis, a local professional and member of Actors’ Equity who starred in Boehm’s Oedipus Rex and here reprises the role.
Also starring are senior Phoebe Richards and freshman Ariela Kaiser as Antigone and Ismene, with junior Will Jacobs and graduate student Billy Biegler as Theseus and Creon. Junior Adam Cohen is Polyneices, Oedipus’ deposed elder son. Freshman Connelly Miller plays a Colonus townsman. Freshman Dana Robertson is the messenger.
Filling out the (very musical) chorus are Catherine Athenson, Caroline Leffert, Ben Luben, Clare Mulligan, Ethan Shen, Hillary Sigale and Alexis Wood.
Sets are designed by Michael Loui, scene shop supervisor in the PAD, with lighting by Sean Savoie, design and technical coordinator. Costumes are by Bonnie Kruger, professor of the practice in drama.
Tickets
Oedipus at Colonus begins at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14, 15 and 16; and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 16 and 17. The A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.
Tickets are $15, or $10 for students, seniors and Washington University faculty and staff, and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office and all MetroTix outlets.
For more information, call (314) 935-6543.