Drama

Sofokles: OIDIPUS

The plague and war ravage citizens of the Thebes. People are desperate. They naturally feel the need to find the one to put the blame on. Whose fault it is? Who brought the plague? Who is responsible? So, they start to search and hunt for an unknown guilty one. The ruler of the Thebes – Oedipus starts investigation himself. The Oedipus who solved the riddle of the Sphinx before he took the throne of murdered king of the Thebes and married his wife Jocasta. At the question: what being of weak voice has four legs, then two legs, and then three, Oedipus replies that it is man – child in the morning, man at noon, and old man with a walking stick in the evening. The Oedipus whose name (oidos = corn, pús = leg) encodes his tragic fate. But why the blind oracle Teiresias says that the mysterious crime was committed by someone from the royal palace? Someone who is both, father and brother of his children and both, son and husband of his mother, and his father’s murderer and violator of his bed. And what’s the role of Oedipus’ brother-in-law Creon? And what if Oedipus himself is guilty? Only if things were otherwise.

The adaptation brings new view of one of the most famous stories of the world literature. It is not intended to confirm old myths, nor create new ones. Such universal story on a scapegoat can be seen in every time period. Along with great performances and modern visual, the production brings chants of the Antient choir.

“It is clear that Oedipus, king and scapegoat all-in-one, is in fact Pharmakos, a human sacrifice ritually offered to Gods seeking to stop the plague from spreading, as we know it e. g. from the Athenian Thargelia festival, which has been sufficiently proved.”

(STEHLÍKOVÁ, Eva. Řecké divadlo (klasické doby). Praha: Ústav pro klasická studia, 1991, p. 32.)