The staged reading of Oedipus the King serves to highlight essential themes ranging from denial and prophetical indulgence, to the downfall of having excess pride. Oedipus, who has killed Laius, the previous king, swears to discover the perpetrator. When the prophet, messenger, and shepherd share their individual stories, the killer traces back to Oedipus. One significant characteristic of Oedipus is his pride. He holds himself in such high esteem that he ultimately tries to cheat fate (which he fails to). The tragedy of this play becomes clear when Tiresias, the prophet, accurately predicts Oedipus’ killing his own father, despite how hard Oedipus has tried to avoid his destiny.
One of my favorite scenes involved the prophet Tiresias, in which we can clearly see that she is not willing to stand in the presence of Oedipus. In this scene, Oedipus’ character is clear when he yells at Tiresias, denying that he would ever commit the crime. Jocasta, his wife, tries unsuccessfully to stop his obsession with finding the real killer. Oedipus persisted and the killer was found, thus leading to Jocasta’s committing suicide and Oedipus’ gouging his eyes out.
Having come to watch the play with little to no prior understanding of the play, I was not as immersed in the script as I should have been. The dialogue was hard to decipher at times – primarily due to the characters’ unfamiliar way of speech. However, what was helpful in understanding the plot was the way the actors portrayed their characters. Oedipus, having too much pride, seemed haughty and talked with a rough tone. The actor was authoritative and suited the character very well. The messenger seemed meek and cautious. What surprised me was that there were only a total of five actors, with a few of them acting out different roles. I did not know this until I looked at the pamphlet, which goes to show how adept they were at changing characters. Although the staged reading of Oedipus tends to be a bit detached as opposed to an actual enactment, the tone used for each character gave dynamic to the play.
Yanfen,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the play. What do you mean by “prophetical indulgence”? I’m not sure I know what you have in mind. Like you, I was not aware until the end of the play that the same actress played Tiresias and Jocasta! You’ve commented on Oedipus’ pride as an important dimension of his character; I am curious about this. I didn’t really see the arrogance that you’re talking about in this production, but I do think that his belief that he could avoid the fate that had been foretold for him is certainly a sign of arrogance or self-confidence.
JS