On the Previous Vic theater in London, a tenebrous stage is lit from time to time with deep, yellowy-orange hues; at its middle is a stark photo voltaic orb. The impact is soothing, like being gently woken by an unlimited dawn alarm. The setting is a drought-stricken Thebes and the play is a reimagining of Sophocles’ tragedy, “Oedipus Rex,” first carried out round 429 B.C. and related as ever in our period of vainglorious leaders.
King Oedipus, performed by the film star Rami Malek — greatest recognized for his Oscar-winning efficiency in “Bohemian Rhapsody” — desires to determine who killed his predecessor, Laius, in hopes that fixing the thriller will carry an finish to the drought. Within the course of, he stumbles upon a sequence of revelations that bear out the reality of the Oracle’s notorious prediction: that he’s destined to kill his father and sleep together with his mom.
On this manufacturing, working by March 29, the story is about in a featureless, vaguely postapocalyptic panorama and instructed by a mix of drama and dance. (The Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter shares the directorial credit score with the Previous Vic’s inventive director, Matthew Warchus.) Between scenes, a refrain throws fantastically unsettling shapes to a soundtrack of moody digital beats and pounding drums.
The dancers’ twitchy, convulsive actions and supplicatory physique language evoke the plight of a struggling populace, however as soon as the reality is out and the gods appeased, the rain comes and the refrain strikes with unburdened grace below a wonderful drizzle. (Set design is by Rae Smith, lighting by Tom Visser.)
Malek’s assertive drawl and blithe, can-do rhetoric carry hints of President Trump. (“Regardless of the Oracle offers us. … I can work with that!”) And Indira Varma brings a suitably regal poise to the position of Jocasta, who was way back compelled by Laius to desert her child. That youngster was Oedipus himself; he was rescued, adopted and went on to marry Jocasta.
However Ella Hickson’s script, tailored freely from Sophocles’s authentic, is skinny and sometimes clunky, and Malek struggles to breathe life into it. His anguish merely doesn’t persuade. When he learns that the mom of his kids is definitely his personal mom, he summons solely the rueful demeanor of somebody who narrowly missed a subway practice. This “Oedipus” is visually arresting, however weak theater.
In a scheduling oddity worthy of London’s uneven bus service, The Previous Vic’s manufacturing was the second “Oedipus” working within the metropolis in the previous few weeks. Robert Icke’s adaptation, which not too long ago closed at Wyndham’s Theater, had initially been scheduled to run in 2020, however was postponed due to the pandemic.
In distinction to Hickson’s staging, Icke located Sophocles’ story in a recognizably up to date political milieu: It’s election night time, and the title character (Mark Robust) is anticipating a landslide victory. The motion unfolds in a marketing campaign room strewed with pizza containers and placards; within the foreground, a big digital clock ticks an ominous countdown. (The set is by Hildegard Bechtler.)
This Oedipus is an image of delicate, developed masculinity. However his dedication to the reality undoes him when he turns into the topic of a birtherist smear. Somewhat than sweep it below the rug, he insists on clearing issues up — with devastating penalties.
Robust’s statuesque side and plaintive bearing befit the tragic hero. Along with his tall, lean body and shaven head, he’s extra silhouette than man. Lesley Manville’s Jocasta dotes aggressively, suggesting a sublimated maternal impulse, or even perhaps unconscious data of the horrible reality. In a risqué scene wherein Oedipus performs cunnilingus on Jocasta below her skirt, her moans of delight — “oh child, child, child” — are an exquisitely ironic contact.
Conceived within the wake of President Trump’s 2016 election victory, Icke’s “Oedipus” doubles as a maudlin touch upon the travails of center-left events. As of 2025, it hasn’t precisely dated. However the present is greatest loved as pure theater. The protagonist’s sheer obliviousness, and obvious decency, intensify the pathos: “No one slips something previous me,” Oedipus brags to his son — however the viewers is aware of his entire existence has been a lie. Stress builds because the clock counts down and the items of again story slot into place like some merciless recreation of Tetris.
Whereas Malek toils as Oedipus on the Previous Vic, one other big-screen superstar is making her West Finish debut in a lesser-spotted Sophocles play. Brie Larson, of “Room” fame and, extra not too long ago, Disney’s “The Marvels,” performs the title character in “Elektra,” plotting revenge after her mom, Clytemnestra (Stockard Channing), murders her father, Agamemnon.
This manufacturing, in a brand new translation by Anne Carson, runs on the Duke of York’s Theater by April 12. In it, a crew-cut Larson stalks the stage in a Bikini Kill vest and ripped denims, declaiming right into a hand-held mic, and a six-strong refrain strikes the story alongside in bursts of harmonious music
Each time Larson has to say the phrase “no,” she sings it, relatively than talking — a motif that emphasizes Elektra’s implacable defiance. Her refusal to simply accept her mom’s lover Aegisthus (Greg Hicks), out of respect for her father’s reminiscence, has resulted in her being ostracized from the household: In distinction to Elektra’s punky get-up, the opposite members of the family seem in opulent fur coats. (The costumes are by Doey Lüthi.)
Apart from the denouement — wherein Elektra’s long-lost brother Orestes (Patrick Vaill) returns to ship Aegisthus’s comeuppance — the play is basically uneventful. To offset this, the present’s director, Daniel Fish — whose “Oklahoma” was a success on and Off Broadway earlier than a favorable London switch — offers the viewers a mishmash of gildings to puzzle over.
A blimp hangs above the revolving stage. A gun on a tripod douses the performers with spray paint. Incongruous snatches of reports audio play throughout a pivotal scene. Why?
Channing’s glibly nonchalant Clytemnestra feels apposite, and the verbal sparring between mom and daughter offers a welcome sprinkling of mirth. However the abstracted, cold deliveries of the opposite actors are lower than participating. Larson, for all her power, has a weirdly perfunctory, one-note depth.
Larson hadn’t trodden the boards in over a decade earlier than taking up this position; Malek, equally, hasn’t been onstage since early in his profession. Reflecting on this, alongside the latest disappointment of Sigourney Weaver’s London “Tempest,” we’d draw the next conclusions: first, that theater performing and display screen performing will not be the identical factor, and that somebody may excel at one however not the opposite; and second, that one thing is amiss when producers are routinely attractive theatergoers with stardust, solely to shortchange them.