John Culbert’s stark scenic design suggests a stage not far removed from what one might have seen in a Greek amphitheater, yet somehow retains a sense of modernity. Charles Newell’s direction and the actors’ strong performances are wonderfully enhanced by the production’s design elements. Using a translation by Nicholas Rudall, the late UChicago professor and former artistic director at the Court, the Court’s production of Oedipus Rex is equal parts engaging and suspenseful. This production of Oedipus Rex is best understood in that context-without giving too much away, there is a teaser for The Gospel at Colonus toward the end of the production that might prove jarring if you are expecting a straightforward production of Sophocles’ text. Antigone will conclude the trilogy in October of next year. Following Oedipus Rex will be The Gospel at Colonus, an adaptation of Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonus through the lens of an African American gospel choir. The aim is to track Oedipus’s journey from the throne to exile, and the lasting impact his actions have on his family and country. Oedipus Rex, which opened on November 17, marks the start of the Court Theatre’s Oedipus Trilogy: The Theatre will stage all three of Sophocles’s Theban plays over the course of the next year. If a story is so notorious that more people know its twist than have actually seen the show, how can productions of the original play persuade someone to even want to see it? The Court Theatre has a solution: simply accept it and put on a good show. It’s a shocking twist, and it exemplifies the genre of ancient Greek tragedies so well that it has lived in the public conscience for over 2,000 years. Even if you have neither read nor seen Oedipus Rex, it’s likely you know its big twist: Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother.

Oedipus rex trilogy