Short and sweet.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY

See the complete review here:

http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/334828/post ( )

Een van de beste stukken, weer met een koor dat er haast nog minder van begrijpt dan de protagonist. De rol van Phoebus is belangrijk, zon, zien, Apollo die Oedipus altijd heeft misleid, blindheid. Ook dat Oedipus uiteindelijk zijn lot haast opeist en overtreft doordat Jocaste ook sterft, een typisch Senecaans trekje. De twee offers zijn allebei onaangenaam, het eerste met de onsmakelijke symbolische ingewanden, het tweede, het dodenoffer door zijn locus inamoenus en de haat van de dode Laius. Het meest plastisch is wel het uitgraven van zijn ogen door Oedipus. Herlezen vanwege de dissertatie van een oudstudent, die het vooral gaat om Thebe als een anti-Athene en anti-Rome, en Oedipus als epicisering van de tragedie, dwz. genremenging. ( )

From: Oedipus—A King in Torment
http://wp.me/p14mpp-c4

Also, in libraries: Seneca's Oedipus adapted by Ted Hughes, (Introduction by Peter Brook; Illustrated by Reginald Pollack) Doubleday, 1972

The lights dim in the theater and the packed audience hushes. The lights come on again, dimly. Chorus appears at the edge of the empty stage and we hear the Seneca’s lines of welcome:

“I’m glad you’ve come.
It’s important to know there’ll be witnesses.”

Chorus turns and leaves as he came. Eerie sounds fill the theater and lights come up to reveal a large white nylon ground cloth that covers the still empty stage. From our right, a bearded, half-naked man wearing dark colored pantaloons enters the theatre—the man is Oedipus, King of Thebes.

We are watching Seneca’s Oedipus—the Roman version of the ancient Greek classic Oedipus, The King by Sophocles. This is the tragic story of an unwanted son purposely abandoned on a hillside to die of cold. But, the boy survives and he grows to manhood a prince in a Greek city-state near Thebes.

Oedipus leaves his home in search of adventure; along the way he kills an arrogant traveler in self-defense. Continuing on, Oedipus enters Thebes and becomes King when he defeats the Sphinx that had been holding the city hostage. Tragically, the Queen of Thebes, his new bride, is the mother who abandoned him to fate, many years before.

Mother and son, unaware of the incest, live together happily and prosperously for 15 years, but, as the play starts, a plague has struck Thebes and Oedipus is in torment because he can do nothing to alleviate the city’s suffering.

Oedipus is a terrified, guilt-ridden king trying in vain to heal a country that is dying from the plague; he is obsessed by dark fears, distant and vague memories of events he cannot bring to mind … an ancient prophesy of doom, a king’s death unavenged.

This play is a joy to read, but, even better, is watching a theater presentation. What a good way to spend a couple of hours and reflect on the torment of Oedipus; kings and leaders have problems, real and imagined, not known to those governed.

Carto ( )