Thanks once again to TDF, I was there this afternoon in a packed house, an audience that leaned forward almost en masse in rapt attention. The unhurried, low key naturalism that slyly launches the action as the characters gather to celebrate of happiest night of their lives feels like an especially brilliant directorial choice in hindsight. The play's journey toward revelation upon revelation via 2500 year-old plot machinery makes the suspension of disbelief a decisive ingredient, and seals the deal for this masterwork of a production. Only by securing our full acceptance of the circumstances as recognizable reality can the scale of the tragedy engage us - and this play grabs us by the lapels and demands our investment.. Even knowing several staging spoilers, I was genuinely shocked (in the best sense) by Icke's theatrical sleight of hand. I can't shake the feelings this Oedipus excavates - some likely from our subconscious - nor forget the potency of the images. The synergy of Icke's craft and Sophocles' pre-psychology comprehension of human boundaries messes with our heads, no other way to put it. No spoiler, but a late moment between the Strong and the poignant Anne Reid had me suddenly in tears of the unexpected kind - the best in the theater. If anyone is still wondering whether to go - go: a month remains.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 1/4/26 at 07:24 PM
