OEDIPUS REX at the Edinburgh International Festival

★★★★★

“As immersive theatre, it doesn’t get much better than this”

If you’ve never seen opera performed in a museum, don’t waste a moment in getting your ticket for the Scottish Opera’s Oedipus Rex at the National Museum of Scotland. There’s a wealth of things to enjoy from the moment you step into the Museum itself and realize that yes, there’s an orchestra there in the Grand Gallery, and opera singers, and a chorus. As the audience, you’re going to have the opportunity to be right in the middle of things. And if the crowd is a bit much, there’s also a chance to hang out with the gods upstairs, and look out over the proceedings from above. Director Roxana Haines’ decision to stage Stravinsky’s opera as a promenade performance is nothing short of inspired.

Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex follows the story of Sophocles’ classic tragedy closely. But it’s a very pared down approach for an opera, and is often performed more as an oratorio, rather than a full scale opera. At sixty minutes or so of playing time, this makes sense. So it’s a daring move on the part of Scottish Opera to go for gold, and perform it not only as an opera, but a promenade performance as well. Sixty minutes is about right if you’re going to have the audience on their feet for the entire time. An audience that also has to be on their toes as chorus members move past, clearing the way for Oedipus, Creon or Jocasta or another important piece of action. The experience is like being an extra on a Hollywood blockbuster set, except that every so often, a chorus member will stop to shake your hand, or dance a few steps with you. Oedipus will stare hauntedly into your eyes as he realizes the horror of what he has done. Meanwhile, the gods stare without pity from above. There’s always something interesting happening in every corner of the Grand Gallery, and the audience always feels at the heart of things.

There’s a full orchestra there in the heart of things, as well. In addition to conductor Stuart Stratford, there’s four other conductors placed strategically to help keep everyone in time. The whole event is a masterpiece of logistics and planning. When you add the contribution of director Haines and choreographers Alex McCabe and Riccardo Olivier, you have a marvellously fluid production that never dissolves into chaos. The Chorus has the lion’s share of the work, from singing, acting, and crowd shepherding. This is not your Sophocles’ Oedipus.

Because the libretto of Oedipus Rex is in Latin, Roxana Haines has had the forethought to help the audience out there as well. We are introduced to a Speaker who tells us ahead of time what is about to happen. Wendy Seager takes on the role as a cleaner, complete with high visibility jacket, which is again a neat touch in an event that’s always on the move. She interacts not only with the audience, but in unexpected ways with the cast and conductor. These are moments that lighten the mood, and connect with the audience in a very immediate way.

If you are a fan of Stravinsky you will like his Oedipus Rex. The opera belongs to his neoclassical period and, working with Surrealist artist Jean Cocteau as his librettist, Stravinsky created a haunting score with voices that sound as though they are taking part in a liturgy. In a very literal sense, that is what the story of Oedipus Rex is. Add in an orchestral text that doesn’t stint on brass when appropriate, and the result is both ancient and modern, sacred and profane. Oedipus Rex is about a man who killed his father, married his mother, and brought a plague upon his people, let’s not forget.

In the Scottish Opera’s production, the lead roles are beautifully performed by tenor Shengzhi Ren as Oedipus, mezzo soprano Kitty Whately as Jocasta, and baritone Roland Wood as Creon. The supporting roles are especially convincing, whether spoken, sung, or silent. Bass-Baritone Emyr Wyn Jones as the Messenger has a memorable sound particularly well suited to the Grand Gallery and its acoustics. In this the cast and chorus have great assistance from Anna Orton whose striking designs make it easy to keep an eye on the action. And last, but certainly not least, the work of the Chorus of the Scottish Opera, and the Community Chorus keep the production meaningful and always interesting. The amount of organizing needed to create a show of this complexity is staggering. Scottish Opera appear to have managed it effortlessly, and in style.

This is a rare opportunity to see Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex performed, and it is absolutely worth standing for sixty minutes to be a part of it. In its way, it’s as close to the experience of taking part in a Greek tragedy as a modern audience is likely to get. As immersive theatre, it doesn’t get much better than this, and the music and singing is equally memorable

OEDIPUS REX at the Edinburgh International Festival – National Museum of Scotland

Reviewed on 18th August 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Jess Shurte

OEDIPUS REX

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★★★★★

“a memorable reimagining that must be seen”

In Eline Arbo’s adaptation of Kleist’s classic play, Penthesilea becomes a deeply queer and transgressive. That’s in keeping with the spirit of a drama deemed “unplayable” in its own time. So if you have a chance to see the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s production at the Lyceum Theatre during this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, take it. Don’t expect an easy time of it, though. The show is performed in over two hours, without an interval, in Dutch. The English surtitles are, if anything, distracting, because it’s Kleist. That means hyperbolic language competing for your attention with the extraordinary things going on, on stage.

Fortunately for English speaking audiences, Arbo, who also directs this production, has reimagined Kleist’s Penthesilea as a non-binary, grungy, punk rock concert with lyrics in English. True to the spirit of the Kleist original, this Penthesilea will send you away asking important questions. Questions that upend heteronormative notions of what constitutes a civilized society; questions about the nature of war when fought by men and women with equal savagery against each other; and questions about love that devours (literally). If Kleist’s Penthesilea isn’t a punk play, what is?

What’s the story? Forget your Homer—the legend of Penthesilea doesn’t appear there. In Kleist’s version, Penthesilea is an Amazon queen who rides onto the battlefield taking prisoners regardless of whose side they are on. She has particular reasons for doing this, as Kleist reveals later. The uncomprehending Greeks and Trojans are disgusted by such behaviour. They have never before encountered a culture where women fight like men, and have their own rules for battlefield etiquette. The men simply cannot imagine a culture where men are not only absent, but only permitted to interact with the Amazons under certain, carefully orchestrated rituals. Kleist explains why. So the meeting of Greek hero Achilles and Penthesilea on the battlefield is an unusual, and fateful, meeting for both. When they fall in love, it’s a love condemned by both sides, for very different reasons. In Penthesilea, it’s the heteronormative relationship that is seen as deviant, and anarchic. It all ends in blood, as you might expect. In Kleist’s Penthesilea, an all devouring passion becomes a metaphor made real. It’s a truly revolutionary drama, and that includes the dramaturgy.

This production keeps you busy on many levels. From the sparse, raked stage that uses light and picture frames to focus our attention, to the red rose petals that transmogrify to the viscousness of blood, Pascal Leboucq’s set is a space for installations of overpowering bright lights, and visceral sounds, throwing every focused detail into sharp relief. The costumes are studies in individuality. From the flowing suit of Penthesilea to the punk outfits of the musicians and ensemble players, each design from Alva Brosten reminds us that this production is about upending expectations. Thijs van Vuure’s music moves easily from the lyrical to the anarchic, depending on the moment. If the music, sound and lighting is overpowering from time to time, that’s appropriate for rock concert Penthesilea. The cast (Daphne Agten, Marieke Heebink, Maarten Heijmans, Maria Kraakman, Jesse Mensah, Ilke Paddenburg, Eefje Paddenburg, Felix Schellekens and Steven Van Watermeulen) have to manoeuvre between being in frame as musicians to stepping outside as characters in the play. If there’s a certain staginess to all this picture framing, it seems appropriate as ironic commentary on the classical theatre Kleist was trying to overthrow. It doesn’t distract from the relationship that is developing between Penthesilea and Achilles. Both actors playing these roles walk a fine line between the warriors they are, and the lovers they become. Violence is always lurking in the interactions between these two. The actors surrender their bodies to the violence of their passions, until the bodies, inevitably, fall apart.

This production of Kleist’s Penthesilea is a great opportunity to see a classic that poses as many questions as it answers. The Internationaal Theater Amsterdam have provided a memorable reimagining that must be seen.

Tag Archives: Jess Shurte

OEDIPUS REX

★★★★★

Edinburgh International Festival

OEDIPUS REX at the Edinburgh International Festival

★★★★★

“As immersive theatre, it doesn’t get much better than this”

OEDIPUS REX at the Edinburgh International Festival – National Museum of Scotland