Oedipus London tickets
Starring Olivier award winners Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread, Mr. Turner) and Mark Strong (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Zero Dark Thirty) Sonia Friedman Productions present a brand-new adaptation of Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy. Playing for a strictly limited run, don’t miss your chance to see the mother of all dramas. Book your tickets now.
What is Oedipus about?
After his revelatory Oresteia, visionary director Robert Icke (1984, The Doctor) reimagines another Ancient Greek tragedy, bringing the secrets of the past bursting into the present.
Election night. The polls predict a landslide victory. Everything is about to change.
Starring the internationally renowned, multi award-winning Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, Sophocles’ epic tragedy is transformed into an essential, explosive human thriller.
The history of Sophocles' Oedipus
Oedipus Rex is an Athenian tragedy written by the ancient tragedian Sophocles in the fifth century BC and first performed on the Greek theatre stage in 429 BC. It was the second of the playwright's three surviving Theban plays to have been about Oedipus, who prior to the start of the play becomes the King of Thebes after unknowingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would murder his father Laius and wed his mother Jocasta. Oedipus took his mother as his queen after solving the Sphinx's riddle.
The play itself follows Oedipus's investigation in finding the killer of Laius in order to end a plague that has befell the city of Thebes. He is utterly unaware that the murderer is in fact himself, and after learning of this patricide he has committed as well as his incestual maternal relationship, he gouges out his eyes while Jocasta hangs herself. The tragedy is widely regarded by Greek scholars as a masterpiece from ancient Greek tragedy.
It has star power
Election night. The polls predict a landslide victory. Everything is about to change. Robert Icke directs Mark Strong and Lesley Manville in this epic retelling of the Greek classic.
Mark Strong is a London-born actor best known for his roles in the Oscar winning films Zero Dark Thirty and The Imitation Game as well as BAFTA winner Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and fan favourites Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kick-Ass. Away from the screen, he has received an Olivier and Critics Circle Theatre awards for Best Actor for his performance in A View From the Bridge.
Oscar nominee, Lesley Manville is best known for her roles in Phantom Thread, for which she received her Oscar nod, and award-winning films with director and collaborator Mike Leigh, Another Year and All or Nothing. Most recently she portrayed the role of Princess Margret in Netflix’s global smash The Crown. On the stage Manville received the Olivier and Critics Circle Theatre awards for Best Actress for her performance in Ghosts.
Referred to as the "great hope of British theatre," award-winning writer and director Robert Icke received critical acclaim for his adaptation of The Doctor starring Juliet Stevenson and Hamlet starring Andrew Scott. A former associate director at the Almeida Theatre, Icke won the Olivier and Evening Standard Theatre awards for his play Oresteia.
Facts and critical acclaim
- First performed around 430–426 BCE, Aristotle wrote Poetics, an analysis of Oedipus Rex, where he claimed it was the pinnacle of tradagies.
- Robert Icke's Oedipus enjoyed sold out, critically acclaimed runs at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and the Edinburgh Festival.
- Lesley Manville has recieved 50 award nominations over the course of her illustrious 50 year career.
- The 6"2 actor is strong by nature, but not by name! Mark Strong was actually christened Marco Giuseppe Salussolia
Oedipus cast
- Oedipus - Mark Strong
- Jocasta - Lesley Manville
Further casting to be announced.
Oedipus creatives
Further creatives to be announced.
