In the Old Vic’s elemental new production of Oedipus, tragedy is a compulsive dance. The moves are predetermined and age-old: rise and fall. Co-directors Matthew Warchus and Hofesh Shechter show remarkable vision in conveying this classical dramatic structure through the exhilarating bodily contortions of an on-stage dance troupe. Telling the tale of Oedipus contrapuntally, expressionistic choreography punctuates the unravelling dramatic action. The result is the audience is made to feel the inexorable force of fate through its unshakeable hold on the human body.
Set in a Thebes ravaged by climate change, Ella Hickson’s adaptation opens in crisis; the earth is scorched and rainless. King Oedipus (Rami Malek, regally unflustered) is under mounting pressure to save his people from the drought. He has two choices: lead them far away to a fertile land or, as the oracle suggests, solve the mystery of King Laius’s death, which will lift the gods’ curse on Thebes. With a long-standing penchant for riddles – solving the puzzle of the Sphinx was the basis on which Oedipus became ruler in the first place – he opts to do the requisite detective work, which sees him digging out old boxes from the royal archives and summoning spectres from the past. What starts off as an intellectual quest to save the kingdom turns into a series of punishing self-revelations, complicating every notion the ruler has of himself.
In his UK stage debut, Rami Malek gives us an Oedipus that embodies a steely confidence that never comes across as overweening. Addressing the Theban people, he speaks with level-headedness and cool restraint, heightening the irony of his erratic decision-making. As the truth slowly comes to light, his kingly sangfroid descends into panicked disbelief and jerky hesitations. It’s a deftly subtle portrait of tragic alienation that shows marks of his background in film acting.
Alongside him is Indira Varma as a prickly, impious Jocasta. While suggestively maternal in her efforts to guide Oedipus in ruling a beleaguered kingdom, her expressions of romantic love and anguish lack vigour. The whole domestic atmosphere – perhaps intentionally – is desiccated. It is as if these rulers are so preoccupied with their own past lives and present woes that they have become emotionally spent.
The dancers of the Hofesh Shechter Company inject the production with a frenetic, tribal energy in their fitful entrances. Cued by Christopher Shutt’s throbbing drum beats, they advance onto the stage like raving Maenads, a sinister mass of spidery arms and legs. They writhe, pop, shake, and twist, poetically signifying the waywardness of Fate. By the end of the play, a shower of rain washes the tortured hearts of Thebes clean, and the soundtrack dissipates into gentle strings; the drenched dancers sit, as if in a state of grace, signalling the restoration of order and peace.
In this Oedipus, the Old Vic reimagines a classic piece of the repertory and boldly pushes it towards the experiential. The audience is invited to feel the play through the poetry of movement; it exists somewhere in the bones before it is fully comprehended in thought. But the beauty of the rhythm occasionally slackens with Hickson’s script, which is riddled with stilted poetry and unachieved anguish.
Greek Tragedy
Adapted from Sophocles by Ella Hickson
Co-Directors: Hofesh Shechter and Matthew Warchus
Photo credits: Manuel Harlan
Cast includes: Rami Malek; Indira Varma; Fayez Bakhsh; Paul Easom; Nicholas Khan; Joseph Mydell; Cecilia Noble; Sarah Priddy; Nicholas Woodeson.
Until: Saturday 29th March 2025
Running Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes with no interval.