Oedipus – Don Taylor Adaption Essay Example

of Oedipus played by Michaela Pennington, the gong is always used to signify his exaggerated entrance and the contrast in lighting from the beginning could be seen as the sun raising symbolising Oedipus awakening from the palace for his ‘grand entrance’. When he does appear we also see the contrast of colours visually, he enters such a gloomy setting dressed in white and gold, proposing the colours of a King. He also has a red coronation robe, the colour ‘red’ being a colour of blood and tragedy foreshadowing a violent ending.

When he talks you can feel a sense of trust as Michael Pennington presents Oedipus as such a loud fluent speaker, but the use of Sophocles puns add a tone of dramatic irony to the play for instance his last line ‘I see it all’ just before he plunges his own eyes out.. Throughout the play the use of dramatic irony is used to a wide extent, adding to this is the use of realism, focusing on the words. We are introduced the chorus in the first Parodos, they all look fairly identical dressed in black and white symbolising knowledge and wisdom.

Don Taylor has used the chorus very well in this version of Oedipus; they always seemed to be making distinctive sharp shapes and movements in order. The chorus are directly speaking to the Gods, visually portraying this by focusing on the heavens above when they spoke. Don Taylor modernises them to seem like jury, at the end of each episode reflecting upon the events happening. Their language and the way they are presented are fast pasted and have a very flowing rhythm. The music

from the beginning always seems to be on in the background, sensory supplementing the themes of the play, mystery.

In episode 1 it seems to becoming brighter emphasising the unity of time in the play. We are also introduced to Teiresias who enters from stage left towards the Kingdom, the chorus stand around the main centre in a semi-circle whilst Teiresias enters and takes a standstill in the middle of the semi-circle to show the main attention for the scene, Oedipus again has the grand entrance from his Kingdom, but however, one of his slaves brings down a stall for Teiresias which is unusual as when talking to a King you are meant to be standing, this illustrates the matter of fact that Teiresias has a respectful name to the King.

Teiresias is dressed in some ways like an angel in the colours of white, he is joined by a young boy, John Gielgud who plays Teiresias presents the character brilliantly emphasising the old age and blindness of the character from his first step on to the stage. The use of music starts to become much lower too. Again when they are talking it is a very realistic scene but there is a change in tone when Teiresias presents Oedipus with the news he is the Killer of the old King, Oedipus always seems to be preaching to the Chorus, yet Michael Pennington seems to present him looking quite anxious a lot.

Episode 2 again the tone of music is the same and the ‘day’ seems to becoming lighter, the staging is still the same too. We are introduced to the character Jocasta and Croen. Jocasta is exposed

as very elegant women by Claire Bloom, her entrance is grand and she wears a traditional Greek rope showing the importance of culture. Her colours like Oedipus are very grand as she wears red and gold with the white brooches which are extremely significant, as people usually wear 1, Jocasta is wearing two, foreshadowing the future events of Oedipus blinding himself.

The way Claire Bloom presents Jocasta is also with a lot of pride, and wisdom she seems very aware unlike Oedipus. When Jocasta is explaining the riddle to Oedipus and the Chorus, we see a glimpse of realisation on Oedipus and then this is when we start to see the downfall of the character, Jocasta starts to realise and the chorus too. We see a change in tone in the music as Jocasta sits down to pray it starts to become more mystical.

This is when she goes off stage to take her own life. Oedipus’s character starts to deteriorate and his actions become more soft and weak. Once the chorus has realised that it was him they hide their faces from him with the caps, echoing the significance of Death as they used to see him as a son of God. It also starts to become more atramentous. Oedipus starts to focus his speech towards the heavens whispering, ashamed were he exclaims his last line “I can see it all”, how ironic.

The play is at the height of dramatic irony here: the chorus also repeat the line “All eyes fixed on him” stepping back from him in a circle shape, so Oedipus is the centre of the stage with all eyes fixed on him. When

he walks back out blinded, the gong from the beginning plays but now he isn’t the strong respected King he was at first, now he is a weak poor beggar dressed in dull, old clothing, like the rest of the citizens of Thebes. He is covered in the crimson coronation rope but now it is split and torn and covered with his own blood. The play starts how it ends.

Once the citizens come in to see their disgraceful king he approaches the centre stage were the cast of the chorus and citizens seem to be looking down at him from around centre stage. His children however, are dressed in white like angels standing by the palace doors. He calls for them and two of the younger daughters come over silently, not even being frightened of their blinded father they seem quite blunt which I think is totally unrealistic. However, taking into all considerations about the production values I think Don Taylor done a very stylistic polished piece overall.