Playwright: Sean Graney ( after Sophocles ) . At: The Hypocrites at. The Building Stage, 412 N. Carpenter. Phone: 773-989-7352;. www.the-hypocrites.com; $20-$25. Runs through: July 12
The question isn't whether or not Oedipus is good. Director Sean Graney is a skilled and adventurous showman who engages an audience through often-provocative theatricalism, and such is the case here. Also, in his own way he honors the antique history of Oedipus, first staged in Athens over 2,400 years ago. Sophocles wrote the play for three actors who played seven characters, plus a 12-man chorus who sang or chanted. Graney's adaptation eliminates the chorus and several characters, but retains the three-actor tradition ( Halena Kays, Stacy Stoltz, Steve Wilson ) and some sense of Sophocles' choral odes, herein transferred to four original songs by Kevin O'Donnell, the House Theatre of Chicago's wizard composer.
Certainly, the intimate 50-minute environmental staging is entertaining as the audience moves at will"or in deference to the actors"through the presentation room filled with quasi-mythic objects and totems, and strewn with garbage to represent the drought-stricken and plague-ridden Thebes.
No, the question isn't production values or execution, but far more fundamental: Why? Why present Oedipus this way at all? Is it a new approach, a re-imagining ( as Court Theatre folks say ) of a seminal work of Western theater, thereby shaking out the accumulated fustian to make the work pertinent to a new generation? I think not, because this version is content merely to gut Oedipus and rob it of context, grandeur and impact.
Quite literally, Graney and cohorts reduce Oedipus to a colorful and circus-like "Classics Illustrated" comic. The environmental setting is filled with bright colors and the audience tosses balloons before the show, chatting with the cast. Semi-improvising with his actors in rehearsal, Graney has produced his own highly condensed text that eliminates nuance. Gone are the rhythms of verse and pacing, of the increasingly rapid unfolding of Oedipus' horrific crimes. Gone is the weight of inexorable fate, inevitable doom and crushing recognition, leaving only the most brutally simplistic elements of the story rushing along. Even so, you won't understand unless you already know Oedipus. For example, the Sphinx"herein called "the Hell Bitch""is mentioned several times but her relationship to Oedipus and Thebes never is explained.
To be sure, there are worthy moments. Oedipus' first scene, greeting his stricken people with tenderness rather than majesty, is unusual and effective. But there aren't enough such moments in this brief production, which is a series of beats lacking a seamless story; a collection of peaks that doesn't build character or tension. I don't understand the "why" of Oedipus as a stripped-down story in a pop style.
Also, for the first time in my experience of Kevin O'Donnell's wide-ranging talents, I found his music disappointing. Graney's lyrics capture some essence of Sophoclean commentary, but O'Donnell's music all sounds like The Doors.