Playwright: Jennifer L. Mickelson. At: Babes With Blades at Lincoln Square Theatre in the Berry United Methodist Church, 4754 N. Leavitt. Phone: 773-904-0391; $20, Runs through: Sept. 25
Surviving texts of the classical tragedies left the city of Thebes facing ruin, its royal family diminished by revelations of murder and incestscandal hinting at divine retribution and ushering in a succession of untimely deaths threatening to destroy the tribal line altogether. With conquerors preparing to assume rule over the nation, its broken leader, Creon, doggedly upholds the status quo, while the distraught princess Ismene, renouncing her earlier capitulation, vows to expunge the curse visited upon the house of Cadmus.
A society such as ours, founded on the principle of individual actions based in free will, is inclined to applaud the presumption exhibited by King Laius, his son Oedipus, and his grandchildrenEteocles, Polynices and Antigonein attempting to shape their own destinies, if only the right to choose their moment to die. Jennifer L. Mickelson continues their quest with her ambitious sequel, which owes as much to Shakespeare and Tolkein as to Sophocles, while still adhering to the parameters of classical mythspecifically, a postmortem court trial in the Underworld, where mortal error may be appealed and, perhaps, vacated.
But before Ismene can plead her progenitors' case to Persephone and a jury of Eumenides ( in this interpretation, resembling Macbeth's Weird Sisters ) , she must first escape her guilt-crippled uncle, her beleaguered home and the ghosts who upbraid her for her fatal inaction. As in all heroic myths, she acquires companions for her journey, who assist her in her tasks, accomplished through Odyssean trickery andthis being a Babes With Blades productionarmed physical combat. She experiences moments of despair, speculating on Roads Not Taken and the attractions thereof, but rallies in the final confrontation to win justice for her clan by means of, not force or entreaty, but her wits, employed in reasoning commensurate with Portia's famous Venetian coup.
The Last Daughter of Oedipus represents another step for the all-female Babes With Blades troupe towards serious depictions of women sound in both mind and body. The mixed-gender ensemble led by Kimberly Logan in the title role acquit themselves commendably, retaining control of their elevated speech and athletic choreography under the direction of Tara Branham. And if Mickelson's episodic saga sometimes verges on epic length ( though, in fact, only running a bare two and a half hours ) , there is no faulting her efforts to resolve dramatic questions left unanswered since 441 B.C.