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Director's Q&A

Oedipus The King

Tell us about the cast and artistic team.

We are very fortunate to have assembled for our production an exceptionally talented and experienced company of actors and designers.  Many members of the cast and design team will be familiar to our audiences, but there are several actors and designers involved in our production who will be working at the Clarence Brown Theatre for the first time. 

 The most notable new member of the design team is Jennifer Tipton.  Ms. Tipton is a two-time Tony Award and two-time Drama Desk Award winning Lighting Designer, and a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Genius Award.  She has designed lights for theatre and dance on Broadway and in regional theatres across the country.   In addition to her prolific professional career, Ms. Tipton has taught Lighting Design at the Yale School of Drama since 1981 where she has inspired countless young designers many of whom are now significant professional designers themselves. It is impossible to fully express the excitement that Ms Tipton’s presence on this project has generated; we all feel privileged to have the opportunity to collaborate with an artist of Ms. Tipton’s caliber. 

Marianne Custer, Head of Design at UT, has designed the costumes for our production, and has, as always, contributed immeasurably to the shaping of our approach to the show. Marianne’s costume designs suggest a modern world while simultaneously evoking aspects of the ancient past.
Master of Fine Arts Design student, Mary Pingree, has designed the set (which I have described below), and Terry Silver-Alford and Mike Ponder are collaborating as Composer and Sound Designer respectively for this production.  Our production will include some of Terry’s original music played on a “prepared piano.”  Terry’s music captures exquisitely the mystery and haunting beauty of the play.   

Our cast includes many of our very talented Resident Artists, Master of Fine Arts students, and community actors, all of whom have been seen regularly on the CBT stages.  They are:  David Alley, Carol Mayo Jenkins, David Kortemeier, Donald Thorne, Cycerli Ash, Jessica Ripton and Matt Ventura. 

Jeremy Holm, a New York actor, returns to play the role of “Oedipus.”  Jeremy previously appeared in the CBT productions of Anna Karenina and The Trojan Women. Elizabeth Norment, also a New York actor, will play the role of “Jocasta.”  Elizabeth has appeared on regional theatre stages, Broadway and in film and television, and she most recently performed in the one-woman show The Year of Magical Thinking at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre.  Ned Schmidtke, formerly based in Chicago, now resides in Los Angeles where he maintains a busy career in television, film and theatre. Ned and I have worked together numerous times at both the Oregon and Illinois Shakespeare Festivals.

For our production I have chosen a version of Oedipus Rex translated by Nicholas Rudall., a consummate theatre artist and teacher who has had a long and storied career as an actor, director and translator.  Nick is the founder of Chicago’s Court Theatre, and served as its Artistic Director for some 30 years.  Nick was also a Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago where he specialized in ancient theatre.   On multiple occasions, Nick has graciously shared with me his rich and profound knowledge of Greek Theatre, and has provided me with insights into the text that will most certainly enhance the quality of our production.

What will the set look like?

We learn in the opening moments of Oedipus Rex that Thebes is in the grips of a plague of catastrophic proportions.  The once thriving city is dying. 

Thebes is drowning in a deadly sea, is sinking beneath
the waves of death.  There is a blight that eats the budding
fruits of the earth.  Our cattle die.  Women give birth to
stillborn children.  A deadly plagues consumes our city,
 strikes  like bolts of lightning, burns our flesh….

It is the desperation of the people in the face of this all-consuming and devastating plague that causes them to entreat “Oedipus” to save them as he did once before when he solved the mystery of the Sphinx, the monster who had long terrorized the city.  It is the effect of the plague that sets the story of Oedipus Rex in motion.  So, scenically, I felt it was vital to the story to establish for the audience strong visual evidence of the powerful and utterly destructive presence of the plague.  To that end, Mary Pingree, has designed a set that conveys with a striking minimalism, the effects of this long-term deprivation; the architectural elements of the set—facades, arches and doorways-- are desiccated and crumbling, which suggests that even the stone structures cannot withstand the destruction of the plague.  The entire scenic environment is desert-like, sere, lifeless and forlorn; the clear impression is that nothing can grow in the city of Thebes now choked of life by the plague.

Another important conceptual feature in both the set and costumes is the juxtaposition of modern and ancient elements.  The set contains some architectural elements that harken back to the ancient theatres of Greece, and some others that could be found in our city centers today.  So, the set will appear simultaneously foreign and familiar, old and new, much in the same haunting way  the story of Oedipus Rex feels--at once mysteriously distant and unreal, while  at the same time, disturbingly recognizable and very real.

Mary has designed a stunning set for Oedipus Rex-- dark, damaged, majestic and perfectly fitting for the mythic world of our production.

What attracted you to this play?

Oedipus Rex has attracted me for several reasons but perhaps the most compelling reason is that it is an example--an ancient example--of a culture’s effort to make sense of the incomprehensibility of man’s existence.  The play raises searching questions about man’s place in the world--is man free or are his actions predetermined, “ fated” by some supernatural force?  This argument is at the heart of Sophocles’ play.  It is a profound question, one that has perplexed philosophers and theologians for centuries.  “Oedipus” left his home to escape his “destiny” only to learn later that he had precisely fulfilled the god’s horrific prediction.  Ironically, it is “Oedipus’” choice to uncover the truth that destroys him; it is in exercising his free will that he discovers the horrible truth of his existence.  Oedipus Rex is a shocking and troubling play, yet one that also suggests the glory of what it means to be truly human—to continue to ask questions, and to search for meaning in the face of the stark, impenetrable mysteries of life.

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