Acclaimed Director Mathew Lutton has remade Greek mythology with a modern twist, inviting you to come and be a psychiatrist to characters that are attempting to rewrite history.
Oedipus is the myth of the man that murders his father and marries his mother. The Myth of Oedipus constructs all the events that occur before that happens. ‘This is about his parents Jocasta and Lauis, it’s about him being born, it’s about bringing a person into the world’, said Lutton.
Lutton told us what to expect from the play –
‘The set is just literally just a purgatory room, it’s a space that I guess poetically is endlessly incomplete. It’s sort of trying to build itself like a piece of history trying to put itself together. It’s become a space that three actors are compelled to tell their stories in, it’s almost as if they don’t tell us what’s happening to them – they might collapse and fade from history.’
OUTinPerth were also told to expect an unpredictable theatre experience, a collective arrangement of theatre languages, and surprisingly, absolutely no Greek text. ‘It’s a chance to watch people trying to get their story right’, said Lutton.
We asked Lutton how The Myth of Oedipus shapes up to his previous productions.
‘I’ve done a lot of work engaged with different Greek tragedies, but this is a very different take on that work, this is actually inventing a new play that directly links into the narrative. I honestly get drawn to these stories that seem to offer everything I’m searching for. Stories of love and sex and transformation, I think that’s things we want on stage’, he said.
To garner the fullest experience from the show, Lutton recommends having some background knowledge on the story of Oedipus. The piece, which challenges traditional Greek Mythology, will leave audiences asking a few questions, ‘about how these Greek archetypes also turn into psychological archetypes. It will offer the idea that in our world we seemed to be obsessed with analysing ourselves; we seem to be obsessed with psycho-analysing. The words desire, oppression, denial are words we use every day at breakfast’, mused Lutton.
The play by Lutton, Tom Wright and Zoe Atkinson is co-produced by the Melbourne Malthouse Theatre Company and the Perth Theatre Company. The show will hit the stage of Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre of WA, from 7 – 15 September.
Tickets are selling fast, grab yours at www.perththeatre.com.au or BOCS on (08) 9484 1133.
Nadine Walker
