The Old Vic adaptation has been in the works since 2019, and the source material dates back considerably further. Yet this slick and stylish production is a contemporary colossus. 

Oedipus's unquenchable thirst for control in a city void of water exhilarates the cracks in his adoptive Kingdom. The ground he stands on, neglected by rain for months, is broken and crumbling. His subjects - delirious with heat and exhaustion - and fuelled by faith, make unimaginable sacrifices to the gods in the hope that their bloodshed will cause the skies to tear open, and with it provide the water that the land, and their bodies, desperately need. 

Their blind hope is infuriating to the elected King, who prizes practicality over prophets. He is arrogant in his own abilities, and thinks he knows how to get his people out of the dire situation they find themselves trapped in. After all, the prophet Tiresias herself dismisses justifications of her outlandish solutions by dryly stating ‘I don’t do evidence.’ So how can she, or anyone else, be trusted to lead his people?

However, as witnesses to past crimes come forward, and uncomfortable truths are gouged out and thrust into the light, Oedipus’s sense of self becomes as unstable as the ecosystem that dominates their daily lives. Who is he? Where did he come from? And can he outrun a fate that he has been born into? 

If you are aware of the 2,500 year old text, you’ll know the answers, but this thrilling contemporary production delivers them in a new, quietly devastating, and breathtaking way.