Initially, I did not have a very clear understanding of the story of Oedipus, however, after attending the staged reading, I can see that it is a tragic and ironic story. I had no idea what the story of Oedipus was about before seeing the play because I did not read it and I did not do any research on it. So I was very confused in the beginning of the staged reading, and I had assumed that the story was mainly about Oedipus trying to find answers from the Gods regarding the plague in Thebes. When Oedipus met Tiresias, The Blind Seer, and she had told him the prophecy, it confused me even more. Instead of giving him an insight on the future of Thebes, she told him that he is his father’s murderer, and that he married his mother.

Oedipus slowly pieces everything together while trying to figure out who was responsible for his father’s murder, even though Jocasta, his wife, pleaded for him to let it go. Oedipus was persistent and that led to the queen’s suicide, which caused him to feel incredibly regretful and guilty that he took out his own eyes. The tragedy was that not only was he left with no queen, he also discovered that he was indeed the incestuous murderer Tiresias had predicted. I thought the ending was very ironic, dramatic, and disgusting because the woman he married turned out to be his mother.

Even though I was confused for most of the beginning of the staged reading, I thought the actors did a wonderful job portraying the characters. I expected the acting to be very mediocre because I was not aware that it was going to be professional actors. However, the acting exceeded my expectations because all of the actors put in effort into playing their part and showed emotion that I could not have felt if I had read the play. I was disappointed in how the stage was set up because I saw a Broadway show the night before, so I had an unrealistic expectation of how the stage would be set up; nicer and more elaborate than just the posters as the background and mannequin heads as statues.