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Nick's Place

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Nicholas Barnard TH367: Oedipus Rex Concept Paper 12/2/02

What is free will? How can I overcome who I was born to be? Or, can I overcome who I was born to be? If I try to over come who I was born to be can I be successful? These are questions that are dealt by with people who are looking to move into professional fields and those who seeking to escape their past.

Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex within the context of the Greek concept of predestination. A traditional Greek audience (or even a well informed western audience) knows from before the time they set foot into the theatre that Oedipus was the one to kill his father, he will marry his mother, along with all the other general ideas about the plot line. Greek audiences came to see a production of Oedipus Rex not as a whodunit murder mystery, but as play, which showed a man struggling with his previous actions, as well as his denials in finding this out.

In modern time, Oedipus's story would while not common, would still be plausible, with the exception that people today do not take as much faith in prophets, and they tend to believe that they are the controllers of their own destiny. In this context, Sophocles's play would seem to have little validity to a modern day audience, if people believe that are fully free willed, thus any doctrine of predetermination would tend to be easily dismissed. Ergo, Sophocles's central idea must be reformatted for a modern day audience. As an artistic direction it is my desire to show the people cannot escape the past that they have created for themselves. This artistic direction is both faithful enough to Sophocles's direction, but fits within the framework of a modern day audience's thoughts.

Any production of Oedipus Rex must take place within a smaller town so to enhance the believability. Within a small town dissention and disinterest about political matters is uncommon, and thus would allow this play to be believable to a modern day audience, but the lack of hustle and bustle of modern day life, would strike an audience as strange, therefore this production should be set in a 1930's (pre-stock market crash) small middle American town. Every effort should be made to convey this in as realistic a manner as possible.

A prologue that explains Oedipus's past is essential toward achieving the artistic direction. There should be a short, narrated prologue that displays Oedipus being tossed out of Thebes being adopted by a poor family in a large city, and him turning his clever skills toward a life of crime. Before he leaves this city he would decide that he wants to leave his life of crime behind. This would make the rash actions of killing his father believable, and provide motivations that a modern day audience can understand.

The style of this play in general should be very realistic. The play itself is strong enough to exist within the visual complexities of a realistic set. Setting this play in a realistic situation would make the whole concept believable to a modern day audience. There would be little time wasted on the audience asking questions as to where the play is set, and where a particular scene takes place, as they would know this from their existing knowledge.