Oedipus Rex

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Sigmund Freud grabbed a hold of Sophocles’ 2,400-year-old play, Oedipus Rex, and reduced it to a complex. This way he could explain a man’s love for his mother and hatred for his father. Unfortunately, for many, all they know about Oedipus Rex is the Oedipus Complex formula that has become the butt of jokes, and fired off in flippant comments.

(Left to Right) Annette Helde as Jocasta with Chorus members Carl J. Danielsen and Kendra Kohrt in the Denver Center Theatre Company production of Sophocles’ stunning drama Oedipus Rex. Costume and mask design is by Kevin Copenhaver. Photo by Terry Shapiro

The Denver Center Theatre Company in the Stage Theatre currently allows the Greek Tragedy to poetically unfold with its twists, turns, complexities, and amazing human depth. Donned in Greek inspired tunics, and holding tight to Greek tradition of the cast wearing masks, the incredible, awesome cast mesmerizes with a translation by Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay.

Directed with high expertise, Anthony Powell digs deep with his cast to feature a fluid, poetic, honest, in-depth portrayal of Oedipus, which was first produced around 440 B.C.

The masks designed by Kevin Copenhaver, are amazing by themselves, taking on the distinct personality of their characters, becoming an optical illusion, as they seem to reflect the emotions of their characters. Masks don’t move and flow with facial expressions, but you’d swear these do.

When Bill Christ first appears as Oedipus at the height of his glory during his reign as King of Thebes, he gives us a man of confidence, strength, worthy of the devotion of his people. The audience knows the story from the beginning, but Christ also magically provides a man who carries a mysterious weight around his shoulders. He heard an oracle he would kill his father, and marry his mother. Thinking he was the natural son of Polybus, King of Corinth, he left to avoid the prophesy from becoming true. Oedipus wins the hearts of the people pf Thebes when he is the one and only to successfully solve the riddle of the winged lion-woman, The Sphynx gleefully and mockingly devours the travelers who cannot solve her riddle: What goes first on four legs, then on two, and then on three.Ó In the eyes of Thebes, he becomes more than a hero, he becomes a god. He becomes their King. King Laius had been killed by a band of robbers. Oedipus falls in love with Queen Jocasta unaware he fulfilled the prophecy since Laius and Jocasta were his natural father and mother.

The Greek chorus representing the people of Thebes appeal to Oedipus. A severe plague engulfs the city. The people want it stopped, and they don’t know how. Led by Robin Mosely, the Chorus includes Mike Hartman, Keith L. Hatten, Christine Juqueta, and Kendra Kohrt. Their pleas, supplications, and narration dance with a musical poetry as finely tuned as a Cathedral Choir. Poignant, pointed, supportive, derisive, questioning, deliberate their words hit notes opening doors to understanding and making the skin crawl.

John Hutton disappears inside the soul of Creon, Oedipus’s brother-in-law, had been sent to Apollo for an oracle on solving the mysterious plague. The solution to the mystery? Find the murderer of Laius and have him banished. Innocently, and with the strength he stood before the Sphinx, Oedipus vows to find the man, unknowingly setting the process in motion to unravel his own life.

Teiresias, a blind elderly prophet and servant to Apollo, appears. He knows the truth, but refuses to speak it. When Oedipus threatens him, Teiresias reluctantly speaks the truth. Oedipus was the one to kill Laius. The oracle is complete. Oedipus indeed kills his birth father and marries his mother. Jamie Horton ingeniously portrays Teiresias with the quiver of an old man who can barely stand up, with the power of quaking truth.

Slowly the story unravels, Christ moves with agility from confident, boisterous, defiant, to crumbling agony as the truth dawns on him and reality sets in.

Mark Rubald boldly plays the Messenger from Corinth who received the baby Oedipus from the Shepherd, a member of Laios’s household who was ordered to take the baby into the hills and kill him. Magically, behind the Shepherd lives Randy Moore.

As Queen Jocasta, Annette Helde gives the audience strength, power, horror, fear, and agony on a silver platter.

Running one hour and 40 minutes without Intermission, Oedipus Rex is a stellar production with a high-quality cast, precise and concise direction on an awesome set designed by Michael Brown. Gary Grundel’s music composed for this production rings eerily reflecting the tragedy of a man forsaking his power to discover truth about himself.