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OEDIPUS
ABBEY THEATRE
BY SOPHOCLES
I N A N E W V E R S I O N BY
W AY N E J O R D A N
Resource Pack 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.Synopsis
2.Characters
3. Themes and Symbolism
4. Greek Tragedy
- Politics
- Dramatic Irony
- Aristotle and the Aristotelian unities
7. Background
- Places
- Religion (the Gods, prophesies, fortune telling)
- The Sphinx (and Her Riddle)
- The Plague
8. Oedipus in the Modern World
9. Greek Tragedy at the Abbey Theatre
5. Features of Greek Tragedy
10.Interviews
- The Chorus
- Wayne Jordan (Director and Adaptation)
- Structure
- Tom Lane (Composer, Musical Director and Sound Designer)
- Scenery
- Characters
- Messengers
11. Further Reading
6. Sophocles
Oedipus
Contents
2
SYNOPSIS
Oedipus
Synopsis
3
PROLOGUE
The play begins with a chorus of citizens of Thebes, a city torn apart by a
plague. Oedipus, the king of Thebes, meets the citizens. They describe
the plague that is destroying the city, causing sickness, famine and death.
Since Oedipus has previously saved the city from a monster called the
Sphinx they hope that he can help them again.
Oedipus is a good ruler, and explains that he has already sent the queen’s
brother, Creon, to ask the Oracle at Delphi what they should do to end the
plague. Creon arrives with the Oracle’s message – the plague will only end
when the city kills or banishes the murderer of the former king, Laius.
Oedipus swears to find the murderer and save his city.
Muiris Crowley (Chorus), Hilda Fay (Chorus), Rachel Gleeson
(Chorus), Barry John O’Connor (Oedipus) and Ger Kelly (Chorus) in
Oedipus by Sophocles in a new version by Wayne Jordan.
Caoimhe Cassidy (Waiter), Barry John O’Connor (Carthage Kilbride),
Peter Gowen (Xavier Cassidy) and Rachel O’Byrne (Caroline Cassidy)
in By the Bog of Cats by Marina Carr, directed by Selina Cartmell.
Oedipus
Contents
4
FIRST
SECOND
FIRST CHORUS
SECOND CHORUS
‘Things Fall Apart’
The Chorus explains the awful effects of the plague, and they pray to their
gods Zeus and Apollo for help.
THE OATH
Oedipus returns and asks anyone with information to come forward without
fear of punishment. He also swears that anyone who does not share this
information will be banished from the city. Oedipus curses whoever killed
Laius, and wishes the same fate on himself, should the murderer be found in
his own house.
EPISODE - TEIRESIAS
The blind prophet Teiresias appears, summoned by Oedipus. He knows
the truth but doesn’t want to answer any questions, and Oedipus becomes
very angry at him. Oedipus believes that Teiresias is refusing to help
because he is in some way involved in the murder. Teiresias responds and
tells Oedipus that he, Oedipus, is the poison that is polluting the city. The
king and the seer have an intense argument, with each blaming the other.
Oedipus decides that Teiresias and Creon are plotting against him, while
Teiresias drops hints about Oedipus’ corruption. Oedipus makes a speech
about how money corrupts, and then angrily sends the old man away.
Oedipus
‘We are all afraid of the light’
The Chorus sings of their confusion at Teiresias’ accusations. They explain
their fear and worry, but they are determined to take their king’s side until he is proven guilty. He has saved the city before, and they hope he will again.
SECOND EPISODE - CREON
Creon appears, upset that Oedipus has accused him. Oedipus then repeats
the accusation, and Creon denies it, pointing out that he has no reason to
want Oedipus’ crown. He has a nice life, with power and influence, but without
the responsibility. As the two men argue, the queen, Jocasta, appears and
stops their fight. Jocasta encourages Creon to go home, while she attempts to
calm Oedipus’ rage. When Jocasta hears that Teiresias has accused Oedipus,
she dismisses it. She doesn’t believe in prophets or prophecies. She explains
how a prophecy once predicted that her son would kill her husband, but that
never happened. Her first husband, Laius, was murdered before Oedipus
came to Thebes, and the one child they had was exposed on a mountain to
avoid the prophecy. Since then she has had no time for such nonsense.
Oedipus starts to fear that maybe he was Laius’ murderer. He asks Jocasta
to repeat all the details she knows of how Laius died – but she reassures him
that Laius was murdered by a whole group of men, not just one man on his
own. Oedipus still isn’t happy, and insists that the one surviving eye–witness
be brought to him to tell his story.
Synopsis
5
THIRD
THIRD CHORUS
‘Pride gives birth to kings’
The Chorus sing in praise of the gods, and they warn against pride, which is
dangerous.
THIRD EPISODE - THE STRANGER
Nervous now, Jocasta comes to make an offering to Apollo, the god of prophecy,
hoping that he will help Oedipus. A Stranger arrives from Corinth, Oedipus’ former
home. He proclaims that Oedipus is now the king, since his father has died.
Oedipus is relieved, since he had left Corinth to avoid a prophecy that told him he
would murder his father and marry his mother. He is still worried about the second
half of the prophecy, as long as his mother is still alive. The Stranger interrupts, and
tells Oedipus that he has nothing to worry about – the dead king and his queen
adopted him when he was a baby. They are no more his parents than the Stranger
himself. The Stranger in fact gave the baby to the childless couple after his friend
found it on a mountain.
Oedipus eagerly awaits the Shepherd, the eye-witness Jocasta mentioned earlier
who can give him the information that he needs. Jocasta realises that Oedipus is
the baby that she and her husband had abandoned. She is horrified, and exits to the
palace.
Muiris Crowley (Chorus), Charlotte
McCurry (Chorus) and Robert O’Connor
(Chorus) in Oedipus by Sophocles in a
new version by Wayne Jordan..
Oedipus
Synopsis
6
FOURTH
FOURTH CHORUS
‘Cithaeron’
The Chorus sings an ode to Mount Cithaeron, the mountain where Oedipus
was abandoned and then found.
FOURTH EPISODE - THE SHEPHERD
The Shepherd arrives, but also doesn’t want to talk. The Stranger recognises
him as the man who gave Oedipus to him as a baby. Only when Oedipus
physically threatens the Shepherd does he reveal that he did not abandon
Laius and Jocasta’s baby as he was instructed. Instead, he gave the child
to the Stranger, as they were friends after spending many summers on the
mountain together. Oedipus realises that the prophecy that he was trying to
avoid, and the one that Jocasta thought she had escaped, are the same. He
has murdered his father and married his mother, and therefore is the cause of
the plague in Thebes. He runs into the palace.
Barry John O’Connor (Oedipus) and
Esosa Ighodaro (Chorus) in Oedipus by
Sophocles in a new version by Wayne
Jordan.
Oedipus
Synopsis
7
Barry John O’Connor (Oedipus) and
Malcolm Adams (Shepherd) in Oedipus
by Sophocles in a new version by Wayne
Jordan.
FIFTH
FIFTH CHORUS
‘Life turned upside down’
The Chorus sings an ode sympathising with Oedipus, warning that
happiness can never be counted on for long.
FIFTH EPISODE - THE MESSENGER,
OEDIPUS REVEALED
A Messenger comes out from the palace to announce that the queen has
hanged herself, and that Oedipus has gouged his own eyes out.
Oedipus emerges, blind, and explains that he could no longer look on the light,
or on his daughters whom he has defiled. He begs Creon, who will now rule
Thebes, to banish him and reminds him that this is what he promised to do
as king if the murderer was ever caught. Creon insists that he will consult the
Oracle for guidance in how to proceed, and advises Oedipus to go.
EPILOGUE / FINAL CHORUS
‘Only the dead are free from pain’
The Chorus sings in sympathy for Oedipus, and, echoing the beginning of
the play, they warn that we can consider no man happy until he is dead.
Oedipus
Synopsis
8
CHARACTERS
Oedipus
Characters
9
CHARACTERS
Oedipus by Sophocles in a new version by Wayne Jordan.
Oedipus
Characters
10
Oedipus
Oedipus’ name literally means ‘swollen footed’
Oedipus becomes king of Thebes before
– and this is a clue to his identity. He was
the action of the play begins. He grew up in
taken to Mount Cithaeron to be exposed to
Corinth, raised by King Polybus and Queen
the elements, and had his feet bound together
Merope. When an oracle tells him he will kill his
– this is how he got the name. Despite his
father and marry his mother, he vows never to
attempts to avoid his fate, he cannot escape
return to Corinth. Instead, he travels to Thebes.
the prophecy, and kills his biological father and
On his way there, at a place where three roads
marries his biological mother.
meet, he is nearly run off the road by a royal
entourage, and, he angrily kills all but one of
Oedipus is intelligent, and appears to be a
the men in the group. Oedipus doesn’t know
good and respected ruler. He is passionate,
that one of the dead men is Laius, the king of
and hot–tempered, but ultimately accepts his
Thebes.
fate and the punishment he himself promised
to Laius’ murderer.
He continues on his journey to Thebes, and
meets the Sphinx, a monster who is terrorising
the city. He solves her riddle, frees the city, and
is made king of Thebes. As the king, he also
marries the queen – Laius’ widow. What he
Barry John O’Connor (Oedipus) in
Oedipus by Sophocles in a new version
by Wayne Jordan.
doesn’t know is that she is also his mother, the
woman who abandoned him as a baby.
Oedipus
Characters
11
The Chorus in Oedipus by Sophocles in a new version by Wayne Jordan.
Jocasta
Creon
Jocasta is a powerful, intelligent queen. She is able to stop the fight
Creon is Jocasta’s brother and Oedipus’ brother–in–law (and uncle).
between Oedipus and her brother Creon, and she ruled the city after
Early in the play he proclaims that he has no desire to be king, yet by the
her first husband, Laius, was killed. When Oedipus marries her, they are
end of the story he becomes ruler of Thebes. (He stays ruler through a
equals in power, and they have four children together. She is proud, and
number of other Greek tragedies set in Thebes, including Antigone and
believes she has escaped the prophecy that told her that her son would
Oedipus at Colonus.)
marry her after killing her husband. She realises Oedipus’ true identity
before anyone else does, and has to retreat into the palace in horror.
She kills herself at the end of the play.
Oedipus
Characters
12
Teiresias
Teiresias is a blind seer, or prophet. He is a respected part of society,
Ger Kelly (Chorus) and Muiris Crowley
(Chorus) in Oedipus by Sophocles in a
new version by Wayne Jordan.
and both Oedipus and the Chorus say good things about him before he
appears. But Oedipus becomes furious with him very quickly, and refuses
to believe his words. By the end of the play Oedipus and Teiresias are
both blind, and Oedipus has learned that Teiresias could see the truth far
earlier than he did.
Teiresias appears in nearly all of the Greek tragedies set in Thebes – he
was a popular character among ancient Greek playwrights for his ability
to see the truth in spite of his literal blindness.
The Stranger
The Stranger arrives in Thebes as if he has come from another world. He
thinks he has arrived bearing good news – that Oedipus’ father has died
and so Oedipus is now king. However he then ruins Oedipus’ peace of
mind by pointing out that Oedipus was adopted.
The Shepherd
The Shepherd was an important member of Laius’ court, and was trusted
with many jobs – among them the difficult task of abandoning Laius’ son
on Mount Cithaeron to avoid the prophecy. Many years later he was also
a member of the entourage that met Oedipus at the place where three
roads met, and he was the only survivor of the fight. He ran away and
has been in hiding ever since, because he knows that Oedipus was the
murderer.
Oedipus
Characters
13
THEMES /
SYMBOLISM
Oedipus
Themes and Symbolism
14
THEMES AND SYMBOLISM
SIGHT AND BLINDNESS
A major theme in the play is the idea of sight vs. blindness. Oedipus
scapegoat – was ‘pharmakos’ (and this kind of a ‘cure’ forms the basis of
speaks often about sight and seeing, and insults Teiresias for his inability
our English word ‘pharmacy’). Oedipus willingly becomes a scapegoat at
to do so. Ironically, despite his literal blindness, Teiresias can see the
the end of the play, eager to leave Thebes and take his pollution with him.
truth, and he reveals it angrily during his argument with Oedipus. By the
end of the play, the tables have turned, and Oedipus has seen the truth
and blinded himself.
HUBRIS
Hubris is a Greek word for arrogance, extreme self–confidence or pride.
It was considered a dangerous and self–destructive attribute (the most
FATE VS. FREE WILL
famous example is the story of Icarus, whose wax wings melted when he
Oedipus and Jocasta both believe that they can change their fate. They
flew too close to the sun.) In the play, Oedipus begins as a seemingly good
have both been given the same prophecy from the Oracle at Delphi, that
and effective ruler, but his arrogance and pride escalates over the course
Oedipus will murder his father and marry his mother. Jocasta believes she
of the play. He is famous as a problem–solver, and insists that he will solve
escaped this prophecy by exposing her son on Mount Cithaeron. Oedipus
the mystery of Laius’ murder himself. As he gets closer and closer to the
believes that by leaving his adopted home in Corinth, he can prevent
truth, he becomes angrier and more arrogant, ironically revealing himself to
the prophecy from coming true. A key idea in the play is that you cannot
be the source of the pollution in Thebes.
escape your fate, and neither Oedipus nor Jocasta is an exception.
Discussion Questions
THE SCAPEGOAT
In ancient Greek cities, in times of natural disaster like a plague, a cripple
or a beggar would be cast out of the community in the hope that they
would take the pollution with them. The word for this outcast – the
Oedipus
Discuss how Sophocles uses the ideas of sight and blindness in the play.
Do you think Oedipus or Jocasta could ever escape their fates?
Can you think of other examples of characters who are punished for their
pride?
Is Oedipus truly a scapegoat?
Themes and Symbolism
15
GREEK
TRAGEDY
Oedipus
Greek Tragedy
16
GREEK TRAGEDY
POLITICS
Greek tragedy is one of the oldest forms of theatre in the world. It developed
as a means for a community to come together and ask itself questions, tell
stories, and reflect on big ideas. Greek tragedy is special in that it gave a
voice to members of society who ordinarily had none. So, for example, women,
old people, slaves and foreigners could not vote in Greek society, and yet the
choruses of most Greek tragedies are made up of women, old people, slaves
or foreigners.
Tragedy was an essential part of life in Athens. The plays were performed
every year at the festival of Dionysus, the god of theatre. It was a huge honour
to participate, and indeed it was the civic duty of the city’s young men to
participate in the Chorus. Playwrights would train their choruses all through
the winter for the festival that took place in the springtime. Each competing
playwright would write four plays – a tetralogy – and they would be performed
over the course of a single day. Sophocles was the most successful dramatist
ever to compete at the festival, and he is believed to have won first place in
the competition at least a dozen times.
Oedipus
Performing plays for the festival of the god of theatre was a religious act. As
well as entertainment and religion, Greek drama often had a political message.
Dramatists used the stories of mythology (like Oedipus), set in other places
(like Thebes), to ask questions about society. The hero Perseus used a mirror
to look at Medusa, because looking at her directly would turn him to stone. In
the same way, playwrights in Athens used mythology as a mirror, allowing their
audiences to reflect on a variety of issues. Greek tragedy has been used as
a political form throughout modern times, since the questions at the heart of
these ancient plays are still deeply connected to what it means to be human.
DRAMATIC IRONY
Dramatic irony is a key part of Oedipus, and one of the reasons it is so
effective as a play. It is a literary device, in which the audience knows more
than the characters on stage. The audience of Oedipus already knows that
he is the murderer he seeks, and that he has killed his father and married his
mother. What makes the play so intense is the way that Sophocles reveals
this information to the people in the story. Jocasta is the first to see what has
happened, and we slowly watch everyone else come to terms with the horrific
situation.
Greek Tragedy
17
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
The philosopher Aristotle wrote an important book about Greek tragedy,
called Poetics. It is the first ever academic book on theatre, and he uses
it to discuss drama as he knew it. Although he was writing more than a
half century after the last plays of Sophocles and Euripides, he discusses
everything that went into the construction of a good play. The example
Aristotle uses throughout the Poetics is Sophocles’ Oedipus – which he
holds up as the greatest example of a play ever written.
Oedipus
Aristotle’s Unities
Aristotle explains that there are three Unities central to any good play – unity
of time, unity of place and unity of action. This basically means that, like in
Oedipus, the story should happen on the same day, in the same place, and
should tell one specific story. The action of Oedipus all takes place in front of
the palace in Thebes, and takes place over the course of a single day. There
are no sub–plots, and no diversions from the story.
Discussion Questions
Discuss the use of Dramatic Irony in Oedipus. How does this build
tension in the play?
How do Aristotle’s Unities make for an effective story?
What are the major questions asked in Oedipus?
Greek Tragedy
18
FEATURES
OF A GREEK
TRAGEDY
Oedipus
Oedipus
Features of a Greek Tragedy
19
FEATURES OF A
GREEK TRAGEDY
There are several unique features of Greek tragedy as a dramatic form.
STRUCTURE
Tragedy developed out of formal dances performed by a large group.
Every Greek tragedy is arranged as a series of odes (songs sung by
It is rumoured that Thespis was the first actor to step out of the chorus
the chorus) and episodes (conversations between the characters and
and start a dialogue, which is why actors are, to this day, referred to as
the chorus). The chorus’ first ode is called the Parodos, and their last is
Thespians.
called the Exodos. Different portions of the play would have been written
in different poetic metres, all of which had different characters and
THE CHORUS
The Chorus is at the centre of every Greek tragedy. Indeed, many of
moods. The poetry of ancient Greek drama was very intricate and rich,
both in language and rhythm.
the surviving plays are named for their choruses (The Bacchae, The
Persians, The Trojan Women). There is no Greek tragedy that does not
SCENERY
have a chorus – it would have been impossible to present a play without
Greek plays were written to be performed in the Theatre of Dionysus, on
one. The chorus most often begins and ends the play, describing the
the slopes of the Acropolis in Athens. The theatre had a circular playing
situation, commenting on the action throughout, and interacting with the
space called the Orchestra, and a raised area behind it called the Skene
characters in the drama.
(from which we get our modern word ‘scene’). The Chorus stayed in the
Orchestra, and then the characters would move between the Skene and
the Orchestra during the play. In Oedipus, the Skene represented the
royal palace in Thebes.
Oedipus
Features of a Greek Tragedy
20
CHARACTERS
MESSENGERS
The main character in a Greek tragedy is called the protagonist, which
In order to observe Aristotle’s unities, Greek playwrights had to describe
means “the first actor”. In Sophocles’ time there would have been three
many events and information that happened offstage. Murders and
actors – the first, second and third actors, and each would have had
violence were very seldom depicted onstage, and so instead the
different roles to play. The protagonist in this play is Oedipus, who is on
messenger speech developed. In every play, at least one messenger
stage for nearly all of the play, and then the other roles would have been
appears with news from offstage. Oedipus is unusual in that it has
divided between the other two actors.
three messengers – the Stranger from Corinth, the Shepherd and the
Messenger, who all appear from different places to share information.
Perhaps it is Sophocles’ idea to have three messengers in the play to
DEBATE
The idea of debate is central to almost all the plays that have survived
from ancient Greece. The ‘agon’ meant ‘contest’, ‘struggle’ or ‘debate’
– and has the same root as the word ‘protagonist’. It refers to the
argument of opposing ideas – and more generally to the conflict at
the heart of any play. In Oedipus, there are debates and arguments
throughout the play – between Oedipus and almost every other
character. The most famous is the one between Oedipus and Teiresias,
one of the best debates in all of Greek tragedy.
Oedipus
remind us of ‘the place where three roads meet’. Messenger speeches
were considered a particular speciality for certain performers in Athens,
and they are very often a great acting opportunity.
Discussion Questions
Can you think of examples of other stories (plays, films, musicals) that
make use of the various elements of Greek tragedy – The Chorus? The
Messenger? Debate?
Why is the Messenger so important in Greek tragedy?
How does Greek tragedy reflect the politics of its time?
Features of a Greek Tragedy
21
SOPHOCLES
Oedipus
Sophocles
22
SOPHOCLES
Sophocles was born in approximately 496BC and died at the age of 90.
He is one of the three great writers of Ancient Greek tragedy, and was
said to have written over 120 plays. His career began after Aeschylus,
and he wrote at more or less the same time as Euripides. He won more
prizes than any of the playwrights who competed at the major drama
festival of Athens, the City Dionysia.
Sophocles’ major contribution to Greek tragedy as an art form was the
introduction of a third actor. Before Sophocles, there were only ever
two actors and a chorus on stage. His innovation allowed for more
psychological development of the characters in his plays. Aristotle also
credits Sophocles with the invention of scenography (or set design).
Hedda Gabler
Sophocles’ most famous plays are called ‘The Theban Plays’ – all three
are set in Thebes, and feature Oedipus and his family. They are Oedipus
the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Although the three plays
are about the same characters, they were all written in different years,
and each was originally presented in a different competition. Only seven
of Sophocles’ plays have survived intact – although we have titles and
fragments for over a hundred others. The seven full plays that have
survived are Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, The Women of Trachis, Antigone,
Oedipus at Colonus and perhaps the most famous, Oedipus the King.
Characters
23
BACKGROUND
Oedipus
Background
24
PLACES
THEBES
Thebes was a city in Boeotia, in central Greece. It is important as a
location in Greek tragedy – it was the birthplace of Dionysus, the god
of theatre. His story is told in one of the very last tragedies ever written,
The Bacchae. Thebes is also the location for all the plays that deal with
the story of Oedipus – including Sophocles’ three Theban plays. Unlike
Athens, which was a democracy, Thebes was a monarchy.
MOUNT CITHAERON
Just as Shakespeare set some of his plays in Italy to represent a dramatic,
foreign land that he could use to comment on contemporary England, so
the ancient Greeks dramatised Thebes as a means of commenting on
DELPHI
contemporary Athens. In Athens it was frowned upon to write tragedies
about contemporary events, ever since the playwright Phrynichus wrote
The Sack of Miletus. The play was about a real event, and it moved the
audience to tears, and the playwright was fined for it. So, dramatists had
to find subtler ways of commenting on contemporary life.
CORINTH
Oedipus grew up in Corinth, another monarchy, far away from Thebes. The
Shepherd hoped that he might never find his way back to fulfil the prophesy.
Mount Cithaeron is a long mountain range that forms a physical
boundary between Boeotia and Attica. It features very often in mythology
and literature – numerous episodes from the stories of Greek tragedies
take place there. The most famous is the story of Oedipus, who was to
be abandoned and left to die there until the Shepherd took pity on him.
Delphi was the home of one of the most important temples in the
Ancient Greek world, the temple of Apollo. Within this temple was the
Oracle, where pilgrims could come and ask the god to tell them their
fate. The god spoke through his priestess, the sibyl, who would chant
enigmatic responses to the pilgrims’ requests. Delphi was reputed to be
the very centre of the world. A stone beside the temple marked the exact
location of ‘the navel of the earth’. The Oracle at Delphi was a major
cultural site throughout ancient times, until the Roman Emperor Julian
came to visit in the 5th century AD, and was told that the old gods were
dead.
Discussion Questions
Why is Oedipus exiled to Cithaeron at the end of the play?
THE PLACE WHERE THREE ROADS MEET
Sophocles made up this detail of Oedipus’ story – that it was at a junction of
three roads where he encountered Laius and his men. Sophocles mentions
the place very frequently – perhaps this symbolises past, present and future?
Oedipus
Discuss the significance of ‘the place where three roads meet’. What might
this be a metaphor for?
How is Thebes different from Athens?
Background
25
RELIGION
Thebes is a religious society. The Chorus of citizens prays often, and
several gods are mentioned. They respect and believe the words of the
Oracle at Delphi, and the blind soothsayer Teiresias also has a place in
society.
hinted that he was adopted.) Oedipus was so distressed by the Oracle’s
proclamation, that he would kill his father and marry his mother, that he
vowed never to return to his home in Corinth. Of course, by trying to
avoid this fate Oedipus unwittingly fulfils his awful destiny.
THE GODS
Several gods are mentioned in the play. The most frequently mentioned
is Apollo, who is the god of light, healing and prophesy. The Chorus
also prays to Zeus, King of the Gods. The play was written at a time
when people were starting to question the existence of the gods – so
Jocasta’s mockery of the gods and their prophecies would have been
quite shocking to a Greek audience.
FORTUNE TELLING
As well as the Oracle at Delphi, there were numerous other ways the
ancient Greeks attempted to see the future. These included observing
the flight patterns of birds, the entrails of sacrificed animals, and even
the manner in which cats jumped. People were deeply concerned with
knowing about their lives and their futures – and there was good money
to be made from the practice, as Oedipus angrily points out in his attack
against Teiresias.
PROPHESIES
The prophesies of the Oracle at Delphi are central to Oedipus’ story.
Before he was born, Oedipus’ biological parents Laius and Jocasta
consulted the Oracle to hear what life might have in store for their
son. They were so scared of the Oracle’s response that they chose
to abandon their baby on a mountainside. Oedipus was rescued, but
he too consulted the Oracle as a young man (after a drunk at a party
Discussion Questions
Discuss how prophesies and religion figure throughout the play. Is
Oedipus responsible for his own fate?
Oedipus
Does everyone in the play believe in the Gods?
How does the Chorus react to the religious elements of the play?
Background
26
THE SPHINX
THE SPHINX
Although the most famous sphinx is probably the kindly–looking
monument near the pyramids in Egypt, the Sphinx in ancient Greece
was far more frightening. She was said to have the head of a woman,
the body of lioness, the wings of an eagle and a snake for a tail. Sent
by Hera, Queen of the Gods, to punish the city of Thebes, she guarded
one of the city’s seven gates and ate everyone who could not solve her
riddle. When Oedipus arrived, he solved it, and the Sphinx threw herself
off a mountain.
THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX
Question: What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon,
and three legs in the evening?
Answer: Man – he crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on his own two
feet as an adult, and in the evening of his life uses a staff to walk.
THE PLAGUE
There is reason to believe that Sophocles wrote Oedipus soon after
the plague that raged in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. His
description of the plague and its symptoms are very similar to those
described by the historian Thucydides. Sophocles could have been
making a very strong political point. By presenting a chorus of citizens
who have survived the plague thus far but are looking to their leader for
a solution, he would have tapped into a feeling that was very prevalent
in the city at the time. In the original Greek, the Chorus even makes
one small reference to the god of War, Ares, being responsible for
the plague. Interestingly, once the tension has started to build and
we are invested in the lives of its characters, all mention of the plague
disappears.
Discussion Questions
Does Thebes have any hope of survival after the play? It has been
ravaged by the Sphinx, and the plague, and now this horror in the royal
household. What do you think can happen now?
Does Creon seem like a good new ruler?
Discuss how Sophocles might be using Thebes’ plague to reflect Athens’
situation. Can you think of other plays or stories that use one time
period to discuss another?
Oedipus
Background
27
OEDIPUS IN
THE MODERN
WORLD
Oedipus
Oedipus in the Modern World
28
OEDIPUS IN THE
MODERN WORLD
The very first modern attempt to stage a Greek tragedy was at the
Since then, according to the Archive of Performances of Greek and
Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza in 1585. The theatre was designed by
Roman Drama in Oxford, there have been well over 900 productions of
the famous architect Palladio, and it opened with a production of
Oedipus the King around the world, making it one of the most performed
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Amazingly, the set design still survives.
of all the surviving ancient Greek tragedies.
Barry John O’Connor (Oedipus), Fiona Bell (Jocasta) in Oedipus by
Sophocles in a new version by Wayne Jordan.
Oedipus
Oedipus in the Modern World
29
Fiona Bell (Jocasta) in Oedipus by Sophocles in a new version by
Wayne Jordan.
Nowadays, Oedipus’ name is mostly known to
Freud’s complex was humorously lampooned in
people because of the psychologist Sigmund
Tom Lehrer’s 1959 song “Oedipus Rex” :
Freud. The play was presented with great
success in Paris and Vienna in the 1880s and
There once lived a man named Oedipus Rex
1890s. After Freud saw the play, he identified
You may have heard about his odd complex
the Oedipus Complex in his 1899 book
His name appears in Freud’s index
The Interpretation of Dreams. The Oedipus
‘cause he loved his mother...
Complex is among Freud’s most renowned and
controversial theories. It proposes that part of
Discussion Questions
a man’s development is overcoming a desire to
Had you ever heard of Oedipus before seeing this
kill his father and have sexual relations with his
play? What did you know?
mother. Freud’s student Carl Jung proposed
Do the Oedipus and Electra Complexes remind
a female equivalent, the Electra Complex,
you of any other characters from literature?
which reversed the genders, based on another
How does the story of Oedipus resonate in the
Sophocles play. One of the most famous Irish
contemporary world?
responses to Freud’s theories is the short story
My Oedipus Complex by Frank O’Connor –
himself a former artistic director of the Abbey
Theatre.
Oedipus
Oedipus in the Modern World
30
GREEK TRAGEDY
AT THE ABBEY
THEATRE
Oedipus
Greek Tragedy at the Abbey Theatre
31
GREEK TRAGEDY AT
THE ABBEY THEATRE
At the Abbey Theatre, several of Ireland’s most influential writers and dramatists
have explored ancient Greek plays in contemporary translations. The first to
do so was W.B. Yeats. His versions of the two great Oedipus plays, Oedipus
the King and Oedipus at Colonus, were presented at the Abbey Theatre in the
late 1920s. It was almost half a century before another production of Greek
tragedy was performed, when in 1973 the Greek director Michael Cacoyannis
presented Yeats’ translation of Oedipus the King.
1926 Oedipus the King (Sophocles, in a version by W.B. Yeats)
1927 Oedipus at Colonus (Sophocles, in a version by W.B. Yeats)
1973 Oedipus the King (Sophocles, in a version by W.B. Yeats)
1977 Living Quarters (loosely based on Euripides’ Hippolytus, by Brian Friel)
1986 Antigone (Sophocles, translated by Brendan Kennelly)
1993 The Trojan Women (Euripides, translated by Brendan Kennelly)
1998 By the Bog of Cats (loosely based on Euripides’ Medea, by Marina Carr)
2000 Medea (Euripides, translated by Kenneth McLeish)
2001 Iphigenia at Aulis (Euripides, translated by Don Taylor)
2002 Ariel (loosely based on Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, by Marina Carr)
2004 The Burial at Thebes (Sophocles’ Antigone, translated by Seamus Heaney)
2006 The Bacchae of Baghdad (Euripides, translated by Conall Morrison)
2008 The Burial at Thebes (Sophocles’ Antigone, translated by Seamus Heaney)
2015 By the Bog of Cats (loosely based on Euripides’ Medea, by Marina Carr)
2015 Oedipus (Sophocles, in a new version by Wayne Jordan)
Oedipus
Greek Tragedy at the Abbey Theatre
32
INTERVIEWS
Oedipus
Interviews
33
INTERVIEW WITH WAYNE JORDAN
DIRECTOR AND ADAPTATION
Why Oedipus at the Abbey?
I wanted to do the Yeats Oedipus here at the Abbey Theatre as a development
on my work, both with the Yeats canon, which they were finding difficult to
programme, and also because I really wanted to do a Greek play, and because
Oedipus felt like a really interesting national play. I was really interested in a
chorus of people who desperately want to change but really don’t want to
change themselves. Which felt very much like Ireland. I was really interested in
Yeats’ project of trying to create a linguistically simple and direct performance
text. He talks a lot in interviews about how he would often go onto the stage and
speak his lines to make sure there was nothing excessive. He and Lady Gregory
went away and tried to pare away anything that couldn’t be understood on the
Blasket Islands.
So, for those kind of reasons I had been looking at the Yeats version, and a
number of years ago I had tried to make that project work here but it didn’t. And I have been pushing for it ever since. I am attracted to the deep mysteries of
it, to the kind of desperate need for change, the extraordinarily primal themes of
scapegoating, power, leadership, crowds, how to live in a city, how to have
someone rule it, and deep, deep secrets lying underneath the surface. In this
case, incestuous and patricidal secrets. And of course we live in a country that is
bound to recognise that sexual sins have been covered up for a generation. I
think that the real mystery is why nobody ever did anything about Laius, and I
Oedipus
think Yeats was tapping into that as well in his version, in terms of it being a Civil
War play. But Yeats’ play, which I still love dearly (and we’re doing a reading of it
during Dublin Theatre Festival) I don’t think it seems very simple now, to a
contemporary ear.
So you’ve created your own version?
Having worked with a number of different translations in various classes and
projects I felt that since I had the opportunity to do one of my own, I should do
one of my own. I’ve done a number of translations before, and written a number
of plays of my own. It also was an interesting project for me because the play
isn’t particularly charming, and that’s something I’ve made my bread and butter
on! Certainly the stuff that I’ve written has been about comedy. So it was
interesting for me to pull back and be very spare.
On the page, this translation is extremely spare.
Yes. It is. But it flows well though – and it can sometimes feel poetic but it is very
spare. I wanted to really really take it to the Nth degree of what Yeats was doing
with it. It’s an interpretation of Sophocles as well.
Interviews
34
Did you work from a literal translation?
I worked from Michael Lloyd’s translation. And I also used Ruby Blondell’s literal
translation, and the most recent Loeb version.
Have you changed the structure of the play at all?
I’ve cut quite a bit at the end, and I’ve placed an invocation at the beginning that
isn’t in the play, and moved some small things around in some of the choruses,
but for the most part no, it all goes in the order of Sophocles’ play. It has been
more a kind of paring down than any kind of restructuring. A honing. In terms of
our reinterpretation I wanted the piece to feel very much ‘now’, and very much
‘then’ at the same time, and also I was really trying to achieve a very simple, very
muscular language.
Any other influences at work while you prepared it?
I had been reading a lot of Brecht poems, and a lot of Paul Celan, and
Constantine Cavafy. There were a number of poets I was looking at, particularly
Cavafy’s poem The City, which is a really big influence on the piece. And Yeats,
who also used very simple language. Yeats’ poem The Second Coming – there
are a lot of echoes of it throughout the translation. And I have quoted Yeats –
there are three quotes lifted and repeated from Yeats’ original version.
I’ve also read a novel called Things Fall Apart.
I was wondering if you had read it recently because the phrase appears
repeatedly in the translation!
Oedipus
It appears so much in our play. There’s a Nigerian girl in the chorus, and
she noticed too. She was talking about how prevalent it is as a text in
Nigeria. I had always known of it because it was one of those books that
English students had to read in university. It’s a really interesting story
about a culture, a character not dissimilar to Oedipus, and a culture that
leaves twins out, exposed, and then when the protagonist accidentally kills
a man he has to leave for seven years. It’s a culture that has very similar
beliefs to the belief system of this play. And in Things Fall Apart, the
characters seem to half–understand that things don’t have to be this way,
and yet they remain inside it. And I think that the theatre is all about making
the invisible visible. So what is it that we aren’t seeing about ourselves
nowadays, that in the future they’ll look back and go ‘how did they not see
that?’ How can we bring that forward in a way that is allegorical,
mythological – that this man, and all of these people managed to avoid
what was blatantly in front of them. Or how they all managed to have the
pieces of information available but never introduced them to each other
until they absolutely had to. Possibly far too late – certainly far too late for
Oedipus. And you have to ask, are we living fully integrated, examined lives.
I’m very interested in it as a kind of mystery play – and I don’t mean that like
a thriller, although it is a thriller.
You mean like the religious Mysteries?
Or rather the atheistic mysteries. Or agnostic mysteries. I feel like it’s a play
that’s cracking this open. Some people think of it as a deeply religious play
– which is an utterly authentic reading. But I think of it as a play that’s really
cracking open at a time when ideas about the gods maybe not existing
were certainly there.
Interviews
35
Indeed that’s why Socrates was put to death – for promoting atheism.
So they are not the ‘standard’ bunch of old men observing the action?
Yes, absolutely – and whether Socrates thought that or not, it was in the air and
people were afraid of it. Because it had been a very prosperous place for a long
time, and they had become ultra conservative. But I think that there’s an edge of
understanding in the play, that maybe the gods aren’t there. And what would that
even mean?
Well no, they are not old men. They are a group of women and men. They
are supposed to be more recognisable as a group of modern citizens
rather than Athenian citizens. It’s an interesting thing, because I think in the
original play Sophocles is writing something that is supposed to mean the
same thing in the now of when he was writing, in certain moments, and at
other times he was writing the past, or an alleged time, and he flits
between that in a way that’s challenging the democratic ways in which
Athens had been existing over the time he had been writing and living.
It’s very exciting on the stage when Jocasta thinks she is safe and that the
prophecies are worthless.
“We are all soldiers of fortune, staring into the void. We do the best we can.
Prophecy means nothing to me, Oracles and gods, where are you now?” The
Chorus desperately need the deaths of all of their families, animals and the land
around them to mean something. Because if it doesn’t mean something, what’s
the point in anything?
Well, the fact that Athens had been going through this with Pericles.
And of course the language of - particularly - the first speech is seemingly
very redolent of Pericles’ funeral speech.
What about the music?
What does a city mean? I think so much of it is about staying together. In Athens,
something like a third of the population died not long before this play, from a
plague, when they went inside the city walls. Part of the reason why so many
cities fell apart was because they all got diseases - that didn’t ordinarily happen
in hunter-gathering societies - when they moved in together. So there’s
something about the question of is a city worth dying for?
And I guess, to an extent, it becomes about a nation worth dying for. Certainly
the idea that we are looking to our leaders, and they either need to be shining
heroes or they need to be scapegoats, rather than us asking what responsibility
are we going to take. There’s a judgement on the Chorus in my production as
much as there is on anyone else – why aren’t they doing anything, why are they
deciding to do this.
Oedipus
I wanted to work with Tom again after our collaboration on Twelfth Night. I
had such a good time with him. And I thought that he could really give
voice to this. It took us a long time to figure out how to make the music,
how to make the right sound for it. It was really only in about May that we
got our groove. And also for me to write words, in a language that was
rhythmic enough and simple enough that he could write and also did what
the choruses needed to do. Because they’re not songs. So I worked with
Tom and I thought he could do the sound of it. I guess we were interested
in all the things that the music and the sound could bring to it, like fugues
and counterpoint and harmony, the different ways that voices could be
together and be apart. There are also religious connotations to the look of
Interviews
36
the piece and I get the sense that it’s kind of a secular mass – my production is a
story about gods that no longer exist. And it’s calling upon the heavens in a
certain way. We wanted to find a music that had tension in it, a discussion, even
when people were singing the same words homophonically. I wanted it to do
something extraordinary. I really felt that the play needed to be about the city of
Thebes. So that it wasn’t about fetishising the fact that he slept with his mother
– which is almost incidental. Actually it’s about how a city deals with, and begs
their leader to deal with the situation that they’re in. And how they let that unfold,
midwifing it but not doing it.
These are the people who are still alive and have survived the plague thus far.
Their friends have all died. And their parents. The plague is an interesting thing.
It’s so metaphorical, and it disappears about halfway through – literally as soon
as it becomes apparent who Oedipus is they never mention it again. Nor do they
at the end of the play. Although I guess it goes off with him.
There’s a line in Lecoq’s book The Moving Body wherein he says that the Chorus
is the street, raised to the level of the mask. And I guess it’s the thing that we do
that lifts it beyond it just being an Ibsen play. But I think that’s important, an
important energy to the thing, and we use the form to arrest the audience, and
make them think about who and how we are as people. We are showing them
something that is musical and theatrical rather than just psychological.
How do you go about putting this huge, archetypal, mythological characters
into muscular, human life?
We are following the play, really. I feel like the exercise is about listening.
Listening to what it might have been. Listening to what it is now, and what it
Oedipus
could be. Listening to what they say, how they listen to each other. In lots
of ways so little of what is happening to them is expressed in the play by
them.
We don’t get any gory details.
They don’t often talk about their feelings. They are actually just discovering
it. It is quite easy to imagine discovering who you are. Or to try and hide
what you felt or revealed. And so in that way you can play. There is a
demand in it that the characters sometimes have to play extraordinary
levels of active ignorance or denial. However, the more we’ve talked about
it, the more believable we have found it to be that people would allow an
elephant to live in the room that much. Like, we’re all walking around and
nobody is doing anything – in the future, are they not just going to ask why
Ireland didn’t just rise up and scream about all the things that were
happening? As they were completely and utterly being made a slave, as
they were being turned into a corporate class and a slave class. So, that
has been interesting and has real demands. So often it seems like he
should know. But then you have to put yourself inside it. Fintan O’Toole
talks a lot about the idea that the essential quality of being Irish is being
able to have two completely opposing ideas in your head at the same time
and never introduce them to each other. Or two bits of information. When
the Ryan Report came out, so many people asked how this could have
been happening, but as Karen (Ardiff, one of the Chorus members) said,
we were all in the movies! And yet we managed as a nation not to realise
that we were living in a fascist Catholic state.
It feels enormously timely, the more you unpack.
Interviews
37
Yes. The way in which the leadership of the place works in the play seems like it’s
not following the pattern of how Athens was running at the time. Or really any of
the major city states. It seems to have a triumvirate – Jocasta, Oedipus and
Creon are equal, and yet Oedipus is the King. He also doesn’t inherit the title,
he’s given the kingship, and he’s also given the Queen. And she seems to be
incredibly powerful, for a woman in Ancient Greece.
Well there’s the whole thing of Thebes being the anti–Athens. Athens was a
proud democracy, while Thebes had a monarchy. There’s a tyrant, and it is the
dramatic other –
Do you think he’s a hero?
He’s a hero when the play starts. They say it all the time. But by the end…
No. But by the end of Oedipus at Colonus he is a hero again. But no, I
think he’s a scapegoat. And I don’t mean in the way that we understand it
now, I think he takes… well, so it’s heroic. An old kind of heroic. He takes
on who he is, and the fact that he is the pollution in the city, and tries to
leave.
Your stage direction is very interesting, like Beckett almost, in that he
stays onstage at the end.
And yet it isn’t that, though.
Of course. It’s totally about Athens.
They seem to be talking about how things should happen. How Oedipus is
occasionally hubristic, or over–kingly, or proud, but then he seems to retract, and
remember reason, and discussion. So it seems to be really about how to live.
And I think the play is at the edge of understanding that a scapegoating culture is
not… that it’s not their fault. It’s not the victim’s fault they are attacked. We
understand now that it’s not Oedipus’ fault. But they wouldn’t understand that at
the time. They believed that there was fate, and curses, and there was an
uncleanliness around certain things, and…
If you try to escape your fate.
…and trying to escape your fate. I think that Sophocles is at the edge of
understanding that maybe it’s not Oedipus’ fault.
Oedipus
I’m not sure whether or not I’ll do that, but it’s a real possibility. I’m not sure
who should be on the stage at the end. Him on his own? The chorus on
their own? Or Creon on his own? Because the meaning of the play is so
wound up in that moment. So we’ll see. There’s something about victims
taking on the language of their victimhood that I’m interested in, and
especially considering what’s just happened to Greece, that’s hanging in
the air.
Let’s talk about the visual elements of the production – what about the
costumes?
Costumes are plain clothes. Modern, contemporary clothes. In lots of ways
they imitate or echo the clothes that the people in the play wear in their
own lives. There is a wooden crown, a glass of water, a wooden mask and
a wooden bowl. They are all the props we have. The idea is that we
recognise them as being like us. Citizens. When Oedipus says ‘Citizens’
– and they’re all sitting there, we’re like ‘we’re citizens – they’re citizens.’
Interviews
38
Can you talk about the design and the visual elements of the production?
Well they’re so open, these plays, like man versus the universe.
There are 92 chairs on the stage. It’s a huge big circle of chairs.
I’d really like for people to think ‘Oh? Is this what Oedipus is? I had no
idea.” I even hope his youth is interesting.
Echoes of people who are no longer with us?
Casting somebody as young as Barry is a great thing.
Yes, absolutely. People who are no longer here. And also a Quaker meeting
house, the low church. I’ve been inspired by early low church music, about how
closeness to god was inspired by talking, just talking, talking through each other
in a community, so that was what we were really looking at. And then the people
not being there, and I guess in another way the idea of a council chamber, or
people meeting in a circle with a problem, or even gravestones, in another way.
To be honest, Pina Bausch’s production Cafe Mueller is definitely hanging around
here, because obviously there are two blind people [in the story of Oedipus] and
they have to walk in a room full of chairs, and the chairs are in their way. We also
thought a lot about how orchestras are put together, and how musicians play,
and I saw this beautiful moment when I visited Versailles. This group of about 25
German people just put their bags down somewhere on the long gravel drive and
they sang, in seven parts, a beautiful chorale – for themselves, although people
stood around – and then they picked up their bags and got on their bus. They
were obviously some sort of choir tour. And that has played in my mind as well.
There was something about listening – how people listen to each other.
That’s what these plays are. An opportunity to listen.
It’s relatively unusual, isn’t it.
Relatively, yes.
I have a great Jocasta. And I’ve been enjoying how great the parts of the
Stranger and the Shepherd really are. My Stranger is very funny. He arrives
and thinks he’s in a Moliere play. Nobody told him it was a tragedy. And
there’s a kind of Brokeback Mountain shared experience of having
struggled through the winters on the mountain between the two of them.
And I cast the Messenger as a woman. Everyone else had to be a man. I
really felt like there had to be someone who was a bit like a father onstage.
And I think the story is better if those two men are men, the two men who
handled the baby are men. So that there’s no mother around. So that the
mother that they go looking for is Jocasta. And so the Messenger felt like
an interesting choice. And she’s in the chorus as well – so she follows
Jocasta offstage when she leaves, and then comes back to relate what has
happened. It just felt good to have a woman talk, since the men have all
been talking for so long.
Yes, it was interesting. Because normally I have very visual responses to things.
Whatever about my productions, my research is really visual. But for this it was all
about reading poetry, listening to music, listening, listening. Thinking about
listening. And trying to get rid of visual things.
Oedipus
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39
Is there anything that you would love an audience member to know before it
starts?
No. Hopefully it plays itself out. Invariably, the nature of what I’ve made, the
production I’ve made around the text, I think it will feel like, as in so many of the
plays I really like by Ibsen or Chekhov, it’ll feel like you’re looking into somebody’s
world, rather than it being opened up and explained to you.
What has surprised you in this process?
I am surprised all the time by it. It’s constantly not what I think it is. There’s the
saying that a great play is like a river – every time you step in it, it’s different. It’s
very hard in this play to know who knows what at any given moment. It moves so
quickly. The structure of what is being revealed is constantly surprising. All
nineteen people on the stage can be at a different place in the plot at any one
point. And finding out how much the play is about the city. Much more than about
sex. It’s actually a play about identity in a very different way. It’s not about the
sexual complex.
The need to know who you are.
The idea that you never knew who you were.
What do you hope an audience will get from this production?
I’ve thought about that a lot actually. In some ways it’s really simple, what we’ve
done. Although the music is complex. But I think the music isn’t resolved –
things fall apart, the centre cannot hold – so I’m hoping that meaning is thrown
back at the audience almost like minimal art, so you watch it and you ask ‘who am
Oedipus
I in relation to this two and half thousand year old thing that I just listened
to?’ And that they’re opened up. That they’ll be listening more carefully to
who they are and what’s being said afterwards.
INTERVIEW WITH TOM LANE
COMPOSER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR AND SOUND DESIGNER
How did you get started on this project, to create music for the production?
We started when Wayne told me that he’d like to do a version of Oedipus, where
the chorus sing – he said – in six parts. We began with reading workshops, and
read through different versions of the script. Then we did singing workshops in
December 2014, and I composed some music for these workshops – none of
the text had been written then so we used different translations. We tried it out,
bits of various choruses and the Messenger speech, just to see what would
happen. There was a lot of discussion about the setting of the text and the
difference between choral music where there are often very sustained words and
popular music, where it’s very syllabic, more kinda on the syllable. So that was a
good experience, to try that. And to work and see how far we could go with
actors – what they could sing, what kind of harmonies they could cope with –
and the answer is that they can do anything!
earnest. I would write it, take it to Wayne, we’d listen through, he’d give notes,
and I would more often than not incorporate them. And we went through the
whole thing.
So you composed it in order?
Yes. The fourth chorus was the portion that survived from the workshop, so it was
already there, but other than that yes, it developed in the order of the play. The
fifth chorus was definitely the last one we did. The setting of the words was very
important, because it’s a play, and they are talking about things that are
happening in the play. So you need to hear the words. The words versus music
debate, which has been raging for centuries.
Have you used different techniques to portray the different voices in the Chorus
and how they communicate?
How much of that workshop has made it into the show?
We didn’t actually record anything from that workshop, but we went away, and
then spent a week at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Wayne wrote the text while I
wrote the music and we’d meet up and play bits to each other – and one piece
from that session survived in the score. I didn’t start writing the actual final score
until I had the text, but I had some ideas. But then Wayne gave me the choruses,
the general sections, discussing what it was all about and then I started writing in
Oedipus
That’s a big question – in the text there are lots of differences. Sometimes the
Chorus is saying “I…” and then sometimes they’re saying “we…” Sometimes
they’re talking in a more abstract sense. So we had to find ways of representing
all of that. There are about three major things we do. There’s a solo voice with
accompaniment – where one voice sings against the accompaniment of the other
voices. So it’s very clear, one person saying something. But it’s not necessarily
that one person’s opinion. But then there’s homophony, which is two or four
Interviews
41
parts, which could be two soloists, or four parts all singing the same rhythm.
Then there’s unison, where they’re singing the same rhythm and the same notes.
But then there’s polyphony, where you have more than one musical line
happening at the same time. With different rhythms and different notes or
pitches. And that is the one that represents the more disparate ideas, however
they are usually singing the same words, just at different times. They’re all
thinking the same thought, but individually.
So it’s like a discussion among themselves?
Yes, a discussion, but they’re not really disagreeing. But that’s because you want
to hear the words. If they were all doing completely different sentences it would
be very hard to follow. And if you do choose to do that, that’s when repetition
comes in, because if you have a piece of text in different parts, if you repeat it we
are more likely to hear those words, on the first listening. So those are the three
general things. That’s basically the structure of the piece – it goes from
segments that are very homophonic, things that are solo with accompaniment,
and things that are polyphonic. Music basically runs on rhythm. So that’s actually
a good reason for polyphony, as well as all the other things to talk about.
What about dissonance?
It is a tragedy, so there’s also a lot of dissonance happening. For me it’s a way of
sustaining energy, and tension. But the harmony is so important – very broadly
you can call it mood. You have to find the right line. There are very few major
chords because as a piece, it’s not that simple!
Oedipus
And these are chords that are specifically used because they create
tension.
Yes. They are. T minor 9th chords – so like, A minor with a B natural in it.
It’s like a signature thing. But then I also used that in Twelfth Night, for
‘Come Away Death’ – it’s a kind of interesting, harmonically ambiguous
chord. Which can lead on to other things. There is, I hope, a logical
harmonic language in the piece. Most pieces are in a particular key, and
then they end in another key. Some with a more chromatic element. I also
had to make everything in the right register to suit the various voices.
Do you have a very wide range of vocal capacities?
We do. It would be a smaller range in the sopranos and tenors than might
be available in an opera chorus. This is because of the musical theatre
background of our voices, which tends to be lower. And for the basses I
haven’t gone too low because it’s choral music and we want to make sure
the voices can be heard.
Is there any portion for the chorus that is spoken, or is it totally sung
through?
Well, most of the chorus’ lines are spoken. All of their interactions with the
other characters. We follow the original Greek in the fact that there are
some sections which are written in a metre that suggests that they were
sung – and those are the sections that we are singing. They generally
speak individually rather than chorally. But there are some bits when they
speak together.
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And there are no musical instruments involved?
Does this feel like a very new episode for you in your work as a composer?
No. There is sound design, and some tones. Which is like a band – an invisible
band. This will respond to the choir, rather than them responding to the music.
So we have done a lot of work on counting, and rhythm, which all singers should
do! So in this, everyone is the drummer, supplying the beat and the rhythm, and
they have to rely on themselves and each other. In much choral music there is
usually a rhythm, and a band, and a conductor, but we have none of those things.
Not necessarily. It’s a bit more accessible than other things I’ve written.
There are nods to more traditional harmony and things. But then there’s
very odd things going on as well.
So you have removed many of the usual safety nets.
Yes. And that’s what so exciting about what this chorus is doing. We’ve removed
the set, we’ve removed lots of the accoutrements. It’s a very stripped back
production, and it’s the same with the music. If we had a full orchestra, it would
feel out of place.
Have there been any other composers’ work that has been inspirational to you
as you approach this piece?
Well, it’s supposed to be something of a blend of things. You can’t help but be
influenced by lots of sacred music, like Bach, Tallis, Palestrina, and from all
through history. But with any sacred choral music, imitation just goes so closely
with vocal writing. Because of the way it evolved, people singing one line against
another line. So that’s always an influence. There’s also contemporary classical
music, music that explores a more extended tonality and rhythmic, harmonic
language, and I’ve written pieces like that, for instance Flatpack, the opera that I
wrote. That would influence a lot of the harmonic writing, but not exclusively,
because lots of the harmonic writing is jazz–influenced, like when you’re adding
ninths, and fourths, and sevenths, it gets a bit jazz–like.
Oedipus
Wayne mentioned when we spoke that he sees this to an extent as a
secular mass. Has that been a part of your conversations as you develop
the piece? You mentioned a little bit about religious music and how that
works.
Ninety five percent of choral music is written for religious ceremonies. In
our culture anyway. And for the acoustics of a church. And choirs were
designed for the acoustics. It all went hand–in–hand. It’s all about singing
the word, it has to be the specific text, and you have to hear the text. So
when you take a text and you set it for a choir, and then you’re using
polyphony, you can’t help but reference those kinds of things. The only
unfortunate thing is that for some people perhaps it will trigger the
association with a mass, or a mass setting, or a hymn, and I think that’s a
bit unfortunate because that will restrict the experience. You have to be a
little more open, and keep listening to the words. And keep thinking of the
chorus as individuals. And as a group of people. As actors and as
characters. Rather than thinking ‘oh this is the nice singing bit. I’m going to
sit back and enjoy this. We tried to write the music so that it doesn’t invite
that.
Interviews
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You’re playing with dissonance, and these particular chords, trying certainly to
arrest our attention.
Is there any kind of over–arching thing that you’ve been trying to say
with your music for this show?
It’s that bit of the brain, isn’t it. Music and language are different things. And when
you’re trying to do both at the same time, you run into obstacles. But then that’s
where the exciting things happen as well. So something that might sound very
trite to say might sound amazing when it’s sung. And some great texts would die
when sung.
Listen. Just listen to this. Listen to each other.
Have there been any particular things that have surprised you as you’ve put
this together?
When the singers do get on their feet, things become easier. They think it’s
harder at first, but the act of standing and moving, rather than clutching the
score, terrified, just frees everyone up, and the singing comes a lot more easily.
And also then just knowing where you stand in the room for different sections, it
just locks in your head. It’s an easier way to remember things. Like using a map to
remember a list of things. We’ve done at least an hour of music every single day.
So it is hard. People have been saying that it’s like maths. Because it requires
you to think, and to count. But it’s great. We are going for a level of complexity
which isn’t present in a lot of theatre music. But it is in song.
That’s the great thing about a Greek tragedy, it’s about a community singing
and listening to each other.
And it’s not simple stuff. We could have written songs, and maybe that would
have been right, but it would not have been for this production. So this is how we
went. And it’s a challenge.
Oedipus
Any other things that have been on your mind as you work on this?
I realised that because we’d spent so much time relating the text to the
music that the music is made of words. There’s nothing purely musical,
simple musical phrases at all. Every bit is a result of the words. Which is
more than I’ve usually done. In Flatpack, I wrote the music first and put the
words on top. So this is very much built of the micro–bits of the words.
Is that a different approach to composition than you’ve done before?
It’s more of a sustained thing. For Harp I wrote the melody and then the
words afterwards. There’s also another difference in that I haven’t used as
much unity of musical motifs. For Flatpack I had a chord made up of three
notes from a kitchen mixer that appeared throughout. For Harp it was a
phrase with four notes, drawn from the cables of the Samuel Beckett
bridge. There isn’t really any of that in this. It’s more like harmonic
references. And that’s because I’ve had to pay so much attention to the
words. You can’t just impose melodies on things. So each chorus stands
alone. And then there’s a kind of recapitulation at the end. It’s that journey
as well. Starting with one thing, and then something completely different
happens and you have to deal with that. They are kind of all making it up on
the spot. Like in a play, you make up your lines on the spot.
Interviews
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What about Jocasta’s invocation, when she comes on stage to pray to Apollo?
Jocasta’s prayer is a number. She doesn’t sing, but it comes immediately after the
third chorus, when they say ‘Zeus, hear our prayer. The prophecy is failing, Apollo
is treated as a joke.’ And the people say that god is dead. And she comes out
and says ‘Guide us Apollo, help us now.’ Earlier in the piece we set up a system
of underscoring certain sections of the text with humming, so the chorus will
come in on specific notes, on specific cues in the text, and it’s enriched by the
sound design. The sound comes in under her prayer, and then they sing a
response, based on the ‘Zeus hear our prayer’ section.
So the observance of religion in the show is obviously going to be tied closely to
the music.
Yes it is. But then they also talk about the gods at many other moments. But this
is the only time Jocasta prays. She’s very atheistic. But it’s a moment of weakness
that she shows. Insuring herself. But this was Wayne, he’s so exact. He will say
he wants this particular moment underscored, and this to be sung like a prayer.
There’s also bits of the messenger speech that will be sung. The sections where
she speaks in Oedipus’ voice, and in Jocasta’s voice – only those bits.
It’s very exciting.
There’s so much singing that has happened before that, I think it will be
acceptable. It’s very exciting, but also very scary. We are all learning new things
all the time. Every time we put things up on their feet, it’s surprising. And because
we’ve been working on it for so long, he’s pushed me in different ways, I’ve
pushed him in different ways. I don’t know if it’s conscious or subconscious, but
it seems to be working!
Oedipus
FURTHER
READING
Oedipus
Appendix
46
FURTHER READING
Greek Tragedy in Action
Things Fall Apart
Oliver Taplin (Oxford University Press, 2002)
Chinua Achebe (1958)
Sophocles, Dramatist & Philosopher
Collected Plays
HDF Kitto (Oxford University Press, 1958)
William Butler Yeats
Sophocles, Plays Vol. I
Collected Poems
ed. Hugh Lloyd–Jones (Loeb Classical Library, 1994)
Constantine Cavafy
Sophocles, Four Tragedies
Selected Poems and Prose
ed. Oliver Taplin (Oxford World’s Classics, 2015)
Paul Celan
Oedipus Tyrranus: Tragic Heroism and
The Limits Of Knowledge
Charles Segal (Oxford University Press, 2000)
The Cambridge Companion to Greek
Tragedy
ed. Pat Easterling (Cambridge University Press, 1997)
Aristotle
Poetics trans. Anthony Kenny (Oxford World’s Classics,
2013)
The Moving Body
Jacques LeCoq (Revised edition, trans. David Bradby,
Bloomsbury, 2011)
Oedipus
Bibliography
47
Oedipus
Resource Pack 2015
This resource pack was made possible
with assistance from the Arts Council
Written & Compiled by
Conor Hanratty
Photography by
Pat Redmond
Designed by
Maeve Keane
Artwork by
Mariane Picard
For more information on this resource
pack and the Abbey Theatre’s educational
work please contact —
Phil Kingston
Community and Education Manager
[email protected]
or visit —
www.abbeytheatre.ie/engage
Hedda Gabler
Colophon
48