*Oedipus Rex
Tuesday, 28 October: Oedipus Rex to most is not a mystery. Due to its placement among classic literature and its use in the work of Freud, Oedipus is just one of those things that everyone knows something about. There is no mystery about his relationship with his mother. This would have been just as true in Sophocles’ time as it is today. The myth of Oedipus was a popular one. So why is it set up as a mystery?
One reason: dramatic irony. The audience knowing something the characters don’t know adds humour in some cases, or in this case tension and just waiting for what’s to come. The suspense has been taken out by the story’s popularity; the audience doesn’t wonder what is to happen next. But the tension with the use of irony keeps the audience wondering when everything will be revealed.
Well, that’s a general analysis of the play. What about the production I went to?
The National Theatre’s production staring Ralph Fiennes was incredible. The set consisted of a large square doorway standing on its own on a sloped round stage and a table off to one side. The table was fixed in its position, but the door, almost more of a closed square archway, and the rest of the stage slowly turned so that by the end of the play the doors had completed a full circle. The movement of the massive block was so slow that it really added to the dramatic tension. At times you weren’t even sure if the stage was turning. The costumes were almost non-costumes. The men were all in business suits and Queen Jocasta was in a black dress suit. It is strange how the suits didn’t give any sense of time period. They are just so neutral that it set the play in a sort of non-time. It could have happened fifty years ago, or next week. The costume doesn’t set it in any specific time. It helped a play centuries old be important to the audience.
The other main connector for the audience was the acting itself. All of the actors were phenomenal. Ralph Fiennes gave Oedipus such feeling and such humanity that I found myself actually feeling a lot of pity for the character. Jocasta’s actress was just as powerful in her part. The way she delivered lines, the emotion and pacing of it, really helped me to connect with her character. But the Chorus was my favourite part. A group of twelve to twenty men, they were always on stage. But it was very clear that they weren’t just there to be there. They had a reason to witness the tragedy unfold. The king seemed to depend on their opinions and feelings, to be doing everything for their benefit as well as his own. When reading Oedipus, students often skip over the odd bits of the Chorus when they are all saying the same thing. But this Chorus was done like a gathering of men that would start all talking to each other at once and then it would turn into a kind of song or round, like a group of Welshmen breaking out into song on the way home from a mine. A group breaking out in a chaotic clamour and turning it to a type of music. Though they all were in harmony with each other, the songs had a disturbing yet powerful dissonance. Again, this really added to the tension that wasn’t realised until Oedipus’s downfall and self-blinding. Luckily they kept to Greek tradition and didn’t show Oedipus putting his eyes out. When the large doors had made their way back to their position from the beginning of the play, the doors opened to reveal Oedipus covered in the blood from the horrible mutilation. Not too gory, but shocking enough after waiting all the play to see how they would portray this moment.
All in all, Oedipus is not my favourite play. But this production was something special, and made me actually appreciate it as an example of literature. I’ll probably always think of it as one of the best interpretations.
One reason: dramatic irony. The audience knowing something the characters don’t know adds humour in some cases, or in this case tension and just waiting for what’s to come. The suspense has been taken out by the story’s popularity; the audience doesn’t wonder what is to happen next. But the tension with the use of irony keeps the audience wondering when everything will be revealed.
Well, that’s a general analysis of the play. What about the production I went to?
The National Theatre’s production staring Ralph Fiennes was incredible. The set consisted of a large square doorway standing on its own on a sloped round stage and a table off to one side. The table was fixed in its position, but the door, almost more of a closed square archway, and the rest of the stage slowly turned so that by the end of the play the doors had completed a full circle. The movement of the massive block was so slow that it really added to the dramatic tension. At times you weren’t even sure if the stage was turning. The costumes were almost non-costumes. The men were all in business suits and Queen Jocasta was in a black dress suit. It is strange how the suits didn’t give any sense of time period. They are just so neutral that it set the play in a sort of non-time. It could have happened fifty years ago, or next week. The costume doesn’t set it in any specific time. It helped a play centuries old be important to the audience.
The other main connector for the audience was the acting itself. All of the actors were phenomenal. Ralph Fiennes gave Oedipus such feeling and such humanity that I found myself actually feeling a lot of pity for the character. Jocasta’s actress was just as powerful in her part. The way she delivered lines, the emotion and pacing of it, really helped me to connect with her character. But the Chorus was my favourite part. A group of twelve to twenty men, they were always on stage. But it was very clear that they weren’t just there to be there. They had a reason to witness the tragedy unfold. The king seemed to depend on their opinions and feelings, to be doing everything for their benefit as well as his own. When reading Oedipus, students often skip over the odd bits of the Chorus when they are all saying the same thing. But this Chorus was done like a gathering of men that would start all talking to each other at once and then it would turn into a kind of song or round, like a group of Welshmen breaking out into song on the way home from a mine. A group breaking out in a chaotic clamour and turning it to a type of music. Though they all were in harmony with each other, the songs had a disturbing yet powerful dissonance. Again, this really added to the tension that wasn’t realised until Oedipus’s downfall and self-blinding. Luckily they kept to Greek tradition and didn’t show Oedipus putting his eyes out. When the large doors had made their way back to their position from the beginning of the play, the doors opened to reveal Oedipus covered in the blood from the horrible mutilation. Not too gory, but shocking enough after waiting all the play to see how they would portray this moment.
All in all, Oedipus is not my favourite play. But this production was something special, and made me actually appreciate it as an example of literature. I’ll probably always think of it as one of the best interpretations.
posted by ladyofdarkshadows | 12:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home