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Rex and Effect

See Sophocles' classic in Addison

A A A Comments By Daniel Daugherty Thursday, Apr 2 2009

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Patricide. Incest. Suicide. Self-inflicted blindness. This isn't the content of an underground snuff film but a night of classic Greek theater (rated PG-13). For those who haven't read it since high school, the namesake for everyone's favorite psychological complex, Oedipus Rex, explores the theme of fate versus free will. One thing that always stuck in my craw about this play (and the book/film Minority Report, which relies on a similar plot device) is this: If the oracle doesn't give Oedipus its prediction--killing his dad and hooking it up with his mom--he never tries to avoid its fulfillment. Then again, Oedipus makes some strange choices in trying to escape the prediction: If your fate is to kill your father, why kill anyone at all? And wouldn't you run a background check on every lady who makes eyes at you? (All right, so no Google back in Sophocles' day.) If you didn't read it in high school because you couldn't figure out what the hell was going on, the script used by director Mark-Brian Sonna is based on a new translation by Greek scholar Ian Johnston, supposedly making the language accessible to modern audiences. Oedipus Rex runs Thursday through April 25 at the Stone Cottage Theatre, 15650 Addison Road. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, with a 2:30 p.m. matinee on Saturday, April 11. Tickets are $18 to $21. Call 214-477-4942 or visit OedipusRex.org.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 11, 2:30 p.m. Starts: April 2. Continues through April 25, 2009