The Pearl Theater Company's "The Oedipus Cycle"
Last night I watched all three Theban plays by Sophocles, one after another: Oedipus Rex , Oedipus at Colonus , and Antigone . The performance lasted about three hours, with a ten-minute intermission between each play. The experience of watching three tragedies in a row approximated that of Sophocles's audience, who would watch a tragedian's trilogy (and a satyr play) in one day of the Dionysian festival, and then come back for another playwright's tetralogy the next day. Sophocles did not write his three plays for the same festival. Antigone is the earliest of the three, followed by Oedipus Rex , and then Oedipus at Colonus . Written earliest, Antigone is the weakest of the three, and so last night ended somewhat anti-climactically. The translation (a world premiere) for the performance is by Peter Constantine. It is direct and modern, without lapsing into untoward colloquialism, though I missed the poetry of the Fitzgerald translation. Eight actors took on all the part...