OEDIPUS by SOPHOCLES in a new version by Wayne Jordan
Let the day Finish What the night Began
Shoot an arrow of hope Into the heart Of this broken city
The city of Thebes hides a secret crime . Punished by the Gods , the citizens seek protection . They turn to their King . He saved them before . Can he save them again ?
Sophocles ’ tragedy is an elaborate meeting of political drama , murder mystery and psychological thriller .
Wayne Jordan ’ s new version of Oedipus invites us to confront vital questions of who we are and how we live together .
The story of Oedipus was familiar to most citizens of the Greek city states in the period before Sophocles began to consider the legend a fitting subject for drama . Indeed , Sophocles ’ older contemporary Aeschylus ( 525BC – 456BC ) had devised his own trilogy of plays based on the legend but only his Seven Against Thebes has survived . Sophocles ( 497BC – 406BC ), an eminent citizen , soldier and dramatist who was born in Colonus and lived in nearby Athens , wrote 123 plays but only little more than a handful have survived . He was a member of the triumvirate of great ancient Greek dramatists also including Aeschylus and Euripides . Sophocles ’ Theban Trilogy which also includes the plays Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone is clearly his masterpiece . It reaches far beyond mere drama to encompass an entire period of history that has possibly not yet reached conclusion . The fundamental innovations he introduced are still current , still form the basic vocabulary of theatre and narrative art itself .
The first consideration that must have occurred to Sophocles was how to present a story that was so well known to most Greeks , the myth of Oedipus ‘ swell foot ’.