Thurs 29 Oct- WB YEATS and the OEDIPUS Plays – Brian ARKINS

October 11, 2015 by mythiclinks

Thurs 29 Oct- W.B. YEATS & the Oedipus Plays of Sophocles & Seneca-
SPEAKER: Professor Brian ARKINS – LECTURER on DRAMA and Irish Plays based on Greek Tragedy at the School of CLASSICS, National University of Ireland, Galway

VENUE: United Arts Club, 3 Upper FITZWILLIAM St., Dublin 2- MAP
Today there are almost 40 plays written by Irish dramatists and poets that are based on the tragedies of SOPHOCLES, Euripides and Aeschylus. These plays proceed from the time of YEATS and SYNGE, through MacNEICE and Seamus HEANEY, and on to many of today’s leading writers, including, Frank McGUINNESS and Marina CARR.

W.B. Yeats’ versions of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus are among his finest dramatic works, and were first performed at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1927-28. These versions of Sophocles’ plays relate the great story from ancient Greek mythology of Oedipus, King of Thebes, who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. The story is about how the Gods and his own actions bring about his downfall.

Oedipus is the archetypally dual person in Western Theatre. As saviour and scapegoat, as guilty of parricide and incest, as detective and criminal – and more. Sophocles masterpiece King Oedipus unravels all of this. His further play Oedipus at Colonus shows that Oedipus, in the end, enjoys a miraculous death. Yeats’ versions of Sophocles’ plays stress the heroism of Oedipus, in his relentless and doomed search for the truth. While Yeats’ versions of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus both incorporate splendid choral sequences (regarded as the finest created by any poet), they are mainly written in a superbly spare prose which makes them readily accessible to a wide audience.

The enduring relevance of Oedipus in our time is reflected in a new version which runs at the Abbey Theatre until 31 October 2015! Wayne Jordan’s Oedipus invites us to confront vital questions of who we are and how we live together, in a new version of Sophocles’ tragedy as an an elaborate meeting of political drama, murder mystery and psychological thriller.