“Oedipus” at the Old Vic
Neil Dowden in the West End
10 February 2025
Robert Icke’s brilliant contemporary version of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Wyndham’s Theatre was one of the best shows to be seen on a London stage last year. Now, within a month of the end of its run, the first play in the Theban trilogy returns to the West End in a new adaptation by Ella Hickson with a very different theatrical presentation. This also has a modern vibe, with the tragedy set against the backdrop of a climate emergency (so the plague that assails Thebes is a drought). But whereas Icke eliminated the chorus, in this inventive production, co-directed by the Old Vic’s artistic director Matthew Warchus and Hofesh Shechter (who is also choreographer and composer), the chorus is embodied by non-speaking dancers.
Rami Malek and Indira Varma.
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.
As well as juxtaposing the tragedy’s central theme of free will versus fate, Hickson (author of plays such as Oil and The Writer, both premiered at the Almeida Theatre) points up the collisions of rationality and science with superstition and faith in which Oedipus is trapped. A resourceful man with progressive views, he has made his own way up from a shadowy background in Corinth to become leader of Thebes by solving the riddle of the sphinx and thereby freeing the Thebans from its malevolent clutches.
But Oedipus’ outsider status and uncertain identity prove fatally destructive. Against the sensible advice of his wife Queen Jocasta to migrate the citizens to a more climate-secure land, he concedes to Jocasta’s brother and priest Creon’s demands to consult the Delphic oracle, which he reports declaring that former King Laius’ murder must be solved. The consequent backward-looking search for knowledge ends in disaster not just for Oedipus and his family but for the Theban people following pagan gods rather than enlightened thinking.
Rather than a chorus of Theban elders reacting to events and giving counsel to Oedipus, in this production there are ten members of Hofesh Shechter’s Company who punctuate the action with frenzied dancing – including mini-blackouts – that conveys the townspeople’s restless insecurity. Driven by Shechter’s propulsive electronic score, his choreography shows their supplications and idolatry, ending in ecstatic relief when rain finally falls on them – though crucially we learn this is short-lived. It’s true that the chorus did dance when these plays were staged in ancient Greece, but this goes far beyond that and though these sequences are engrossing in themselves they do tend to fragment the story.
Although Hickson has made more of the public scenes private between Oedipus and Jocasta, there is a lack of intimacy in their relationship which seems dwarfed by their surroundings – and though there are powerful moments of ritual the sense of personal tragedy is tenuous. Warchus suggests a wider community with Oedipus directly addressing the audience as the Theban people, with Christopher Shutt’s echoing sound design evoking the crowd’s reactions. Rae Smith’s monumental design includes an illuminated white platform from which speeches are made and as a backdrop a startlingly vibrant orange sun, while Tom Visser’s dramatic shafts of lighting create chiaroscuro effects around the protagonists.
Rami Malek (winner of an Oscar for portraying Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody and an Emmy for playing a hacktivist in sci-fi thriller Mr. Robot) seems strangely detached as the ill-fated Oedipus, putting emphasis on unexpected parts of speech, as he struggles to get to grips with the intense emotions of the character whom he plays as a misfit. And there is little chemistry between him and Indira Varma’s spirited Jocasta, who wants to protect the family but who is only slightly older so that the shocking denouement about their relationship loses credibility.
Nicholas Khan gives a strong performance as the religious fanatic Creon who manipulates events for his own ambition. Joseph Mydell as Corinthia and Nicholas Woodeson as the Shepherd provide emotional heft as faithful retainers whose witness statements unfortunately condemn Oedipus who they are trying to help in his quest. And Cecilia Noble is wonderfully wilful as the blind prophet Tiresias who has already seen what is to come.
