Oedipus the King by
Sophocles. Greek Theatre Now at Burbidge Amphitheatre, Australian National Botanic Gardens, April 2-6 2026.
Reviewed by
Frank McKoneApril 4
Cast & CreativesDirector/Producer: Michael J. Smith
Oedipus: Andrew Mackenzie;
Jocasta: Kate Blackhurst
Creon: Owen Maycock
Ensemble/Other Roles: George Belibassakis, Roslyn Hull, Liam O’Connor, Louisa O’Brien, Jade Boyle, and Marcus Mele
Masks/Props: Ben Smith Whatley; Costumes: Priya Pandya
Classics Adviser: Elizabeth Minchin; Graphics: Emilio Park
Photography: Fuyao Liu
Since the Company is called Greek Theatre Now, I must answer the question: What makes this production as relevant today as when Sophocles presented it to the people of Athens as the tragedy Oedipus the King (original Greek title Οιδίπους τύραννος, most commonly known as Oedipus Rex) probably “in the first half of the decade 430–420 BCE”.
That’s 430 + 2000 + 26 = 2456 years ago.
The plague, in Thebes in the play, described in Oedipus Rex “could
reflect an actual historical event, [comparing] it with the plague of
Athens, which was described by the historian Thucydides as occurring not
long before the time that Sophocles’ work appeared”.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3310127
(US National Library of Medicine National Center Biotechnology Information / PubMed Central)
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| Bust of Sophocles in the Colonnade of the Muses in the Achilleion, Corfu, Greece, July 2011. Photo courtesy Antonis A. Kousoulis. |
Today’s population of the Australian Capital Territory is listed as 486,231 as of September 2025; Attica’s population, according to Ben Akrigg, (Population and economy in classical Athens. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019) may have been 400.000
[ https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.10.40 ]
So I imagine Sophocles writing Oedipus the King for his Attica city-state community, winning second prize at the Athenian dramatic festival of the Great Dionysia, just as our ACT city-state playwright Dylan Van Den Berg recently wrote Milk, about a young Palawa man and his connection to Country, which won the NSW Premiers Award and Canberra Critics’ Circle Award. (Currency Press, 2023)
Just as Dylan shows us the emotional effects and truths about our failure to deal with the situation of Indigenous people, for whom we, as descendants of the 18th Century invaders, are a plague; Sophocles shows his community the truth about their belief in mythical prophecies, not just about an actual plague (which today we would not expect them to know how to treat – a bit like Covid in 2020), but more about the nature of political power and ironic comeback when trying to predict the future, which I think we have seen in Prime Minister Albanese’s over-enthusiasm – though for the right reasons – for the failed referendum to give First Nations a voice in the Constitution.
In Sophocles’ play, when Oedipus’ actual parents, Thebes’ King Laius and Queen Jocasta, have him as a baby taken into the mountains to die, their employee gives him to a shepherd who takes pity on the baby, removes the ties holding his ankles together – which causes the swelling in the name “Swollen Feet” i.e. “Oedipus”, and passes him – for the right reasons – to be taken to another city-state, Corinth, where he is adopted by King Polybus and Queen Merope, and grows up believing them – wrongly – to be his parents.
The ironic point of the play is that the mythical prophecy, despite doubts about the gods and oracles’ pronouncements, turns out to be what happens. Even more ironic is that Oedipus forthrightly – and correctly – insists on discovering all the actual facts, and in doing so causes his own downfall.
Whether Albanese faces his own downfall, we won’t know until the next federal election. But Sophocles says, take care to stick to the truth, but even then you can never be sure what will happen. Maybe there is something called Fate, unknowable like the gods of old.
So, to answer my question, this production is a prime example of excellent theatre, very successfully performed in a modern manner, in our own outdoor amphitheatre, which recreates the essential style – sometimes called “Presentational” – which makes it clear to us that we are watching an acted-out drama, rather than an ordinary slice of life, with an intention to raise crucial issues in our lives – like what does it mean to say this is true, or an innocent misunderstanding, or fake news (deliberately so or not).
If this isn’t relevant to our modern technological life, I don’t know what is!
This was achieved by all the actors in their movement, voice (spoken and sung) and costumes that represented the ancient Greek, all choreographed to use the amphitheatre space simply and effectively.
It took only a little while, as one got used to the styling, to find oneself shifting out of being in Canberra to appreciating how the Athenians so long ago would have been watching, listening carefully, reacting to the evolving tragic life of Oedipus and especially of his real mother, Jocasta, and left to wonder what our own fates might be.
The directing and performing really feels like an intelligent community theatre group working for our community. Very highly recommended.
On a lighter side, I was amused, and wondered how their prayers were answered, as on a day that had been cloud-covered since dawn, as the Chorus prayed for help from the Gods at the end of the play at 4pm, the clouds cleared and the afternoon sun shone through.
Photos: Peter Hislop
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| Andrew Mackenzie as Oedipus, Owen Maycock as Creon |
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| Kate Blackhurst as Jocasta - mother and wife to Oedipus |
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| The Chorus praying for help (just as the sun came out) |
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