Review: Oedipus created and adapted by The Ensemble. Based on Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles. Directed by Jake Groshong & Ryan Higgins. Dramaturg: Lenore Bensinger. Produced by The Balagan. With Ryan Fields, Patrick Bentley, Gabe Franken, Joanna Horowitz, Allison Strickland.
The Balagan finishes up their massively ambitious ten play season with an ensemble generated adaptation of Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus abridged into a single two hour play. (Staging a ten play season is tough, AND expensive, so it made sense for them to adapt Sophocles; the last time I checked, the heirs of the Sophocles Literary Trust had failed in their efforts to extend the Copyright Protection Act retroactive to 429 BC…Apparently, they couldn’t afford to hire Disney calibre lawyers. But, I digress.) The Balagan’s cost-cutting measure, (no royalties to pay!) works to our benefit. Their smart, contemporary adaptation of two classic plays is a brave, artistic endeavor that frequently works very well and manages to be entertaining, current and vibrant theater. With a little more re-writing, a bit of re-casting and a much larger budget for sets, costumes and most importantly, lighting, Oedipus is a production that wouldn’t be out of place at Intiman or Seattle Rep.
I’m short on time and y’all should be aware of the plot of Oedipus…if you’re not, then blame your piss-poor education or the poor choices you made as a student, and head over to Wikipedia for a refresher. But, in a nutshell, Oedipus is about a prince who it is foretold, will kill his father and marry his mother. To circumvent this, he is sent away to another city to be raised but the Fates being what they are, of course Oedipus ends up heading back to his hometown of Thebes and unknowingly killing his father and marrying his mother and ending up as the king. Eventually after a series of disasters strike Thebes, he discovers what he has done and in his pain and guilt he ends up blinding himself and spending the rest of his days as a pariah, wandering the countryside with his daughter Antigone before dying at Colonus under the protection of the Athenian king, Theseus. It is a real, “feel good” night of theater.
But, happily, it is a feel good night of theater due to the smart adaptation by The Balagan that makes this age old text accessible to modern audiences by making the dialogue colloquial and conversational while maintaining the theatricality and richness of the text. There are a few moments when I think it gets a little too contemporary, but overall the play remains faithful to the plot and the emotions conveyed by the characters and situations in the original text. Co-directors Jake Groshong & Ryan Higgins and the dramaturg Lenore Bensinger have done an excellent job of creating a new and fresh literary work from the bones of an iconic piece of literature, with the assistance and collaboration of the cast of seven actors. They are to be commended.
As for they actors, they too deserve praise for their performances, but I have to be honest and give a little more praise to some, rather than all. Patrick Bentley opens the show crouched over the hearth fires of an altar and his powerful nuanced performance and strong voice are one of the chief assets of the show in a number of roles including that of Creon, Oedipus’s vengeful uncle. Equally fine, is Gabe Franken, also in a number of roles, including Theseus, and well suited to adapt his performances for the different characters he portrays. However, I was a little less sure of our leading man, Ryan Fields as Oedipus; his initial moments in the play were a little off-putting at first; his style of acting was very low-key, very contemporary, very filmic and not very theatrical. The other actors all seemed to be acting in a theater piece; Fields seemed to have wandered in from an episode of Law & Order. Yet, his acting was powerful and naturalistic and charismatic and interesting; you could always see the inner strength and emotions of the character under the actor’s skin and the power and energy of his performance continued to grow as the play progressed. Mr Fields makes a very compelling leading man and I think he could have a bright future as an actor, either onstage, and/or on film.
As for the actresses, Alison Strickland shines in multiple roles, most notably as a very sexy Sphynx who knows how to show an Oedipus a good time, and later, as Ismene the fiercely loyal daughter/sister of Oedipus. Joanna Horowitz was fine as Jocasta, but I think the part does really require an actress who appears older than Oedipus; she must be believable that she is biologically old enough to be the young mother of the man she marries. Ms Horowitz and Mr Fields appear to both about thirty or so; it would have been visually and dramatically more interesting to cast a “cougary” actress that’s closer to 45 than 35 to enforce and enhance the shock and disgrace of the revelations of Oedipus and Jocasta’s relationship. (And, of course, you could argue that the part of Oedipus should have been cast with a younger looking man; don’t want the sexist finger pointed at ME!)
Design wise…sigh. I harp on this in every Balagan review so I won’t dwell on it much. They are poor and in a basement. There is not a lot they can do, especially when it comes to the lighting. The set was fine; minimal, existential grunge and the roughhewn altar in the center of the stage was very powerful and effective. But, this show cries out for some AMAZING lighting and technically and financially and logistically the Balagan can’t do the show justice despite the fine efforts of lighting designer Terra Morgan, who does achieve some wonderful moody lighting effects with what she has to work with. The costumes were also effectively theatrical in that ravaged, non-specific, dystopic sort of way familiar to all low-budget theater companies. Kudos to all the designers and crew for making the best of an under-financed situation.
The Balagan will be announcing their next season in a few weeks…if it proves to be as challenging and interesting and varied as this season, then we will be in for a treat…and, hopefully some rich bastard will leave them a legacy so they can get out of that damn basement and I won’t have to hear the gawdamned scraping of chairs and benches from the elephant-sized, Eastside dwelling patrons at Boom Noodle, up above the Balagan that manages to occur during every quiet intense moment on the stage…
Oedipus is being staged Thurs through Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm now through June 5 at The Balagan, 1117 East Pike Street, Capitol Hill
Photos by Andrea Huysing/The Balagan
-Michael Strangeways
About the Author: Michael Strangeways
