I thought that the performance of Sophocles’ Oedipus The King that we saw was more effective in conveying what was happening in the plot of the story than if we had only read it out on our own. The performers added a sense of urgency, panic, and despair that would not have come across to me in text alone.

Before the performance started, I noticed that the static set seemed to be a modern interpretation of Oedipus’ castle/palace due to the graffiti on either side of the entrance This was a nice aesthetic addition, but did not turn out to be a vital part of the story as I had postulated at first. Something that I appreciated in the performance, which I learned was different from the text during the question and answer, was the consolidation of the crowd of ordinary citizenry into one  character. I feel that this made the relationship between the ruler and the ruled more intimate, and like Oedipus was more obligated to listen to one man than a crowd.

After seeing the rendition of Oedipus The King, some of our classmates who saw an earlier performance asked me two things. How and why did Oedipus kill his father, and what did Oedipus mean when he said that he slept where he should not have slept? I thought that the performance that I saw did a great job of showing the audience what occurred. This is where the urgency, panic, and despair come in. Oedipus, in sheer terror, realizes that he killed his father when his fathers’ convoy ran Oedipus off the road, and in anger, killed the whole convoy except for one man, who lives to recount the story, and ultimately, dooms Oedipus. In the climax of the story, Oedipus quivered as he said, “I have slept where I should not have slept.” Around the same time that his wife realizes that she can no longer deceive Oedipus, it finally occurs to him that he not only was the one who killed his father, but was also sleeping with his own mother. Seeing how this leads to Oedipus gouging his own eyes out was truly disturbing to see.