By Lydia Austin-Zimmerman

I spoke to Writer/Director Gabriele Uboldi about what we can expect from the reimagining of the classical tragedy ‘Oedipus Rex’, which opens soon at the Byre Theatre.

This production explores the tension of fate versus free will which is intrinsic to the original story, but positions Oedipus as a president rather than a King and switches the will of the gods to the will of the people as the external force driving the characters’ actions. The question of whether it is possible to escape fate is updated to a debate about personal narratives and the extent to which our identity shapes the stories we tell about ourselves, in order to suite a more modern audience. Gabriele emphasises the importance of exploring identity in this performance which utilizes its large crew to explore Oedipus’ internal narratives using projections, pre-recorded audio and television screens. Overall, this performance looks set to inject an impressive degree of originality into a story that has fascinated audiences for millennia.

How did you find the process of adapting a Greek tragedy?

I’ve been thinking about how to adapt Greek tragedy and ancient texts for a long time and so I think that I’ve [...] taken it to the extreme in the sense that the plotline is still there, all of the themes are still there, but the text is completely different. You can come see it and you can definitely hear the characters using their original names like Jocasta and Oedipus, but at the end of the day it is a contemporary re-writing so I was thinking of the themes of the play and the devices that the writer was using to convey those themes and trying to figure out if they were possible in a contemporary way. So for example, we’ve done away with the ideas of oracles and prophecies and we’ve substituted those with polls because we’re talking about politics.

Did you do the rewriting yourself or was it a collaborative process?

I did it myself. I went to a workshop which was organised by the National Theatre of Scotland because this is my 4th year and I’m going into theatre afterward, and I’ve really been looking into all the different opportunities that there are especially in Scotland. So, I did a workshop with them and I was talking about the ideas of the play and seeing what other people thought, and then I also attended a script surgery at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer with a professional playwright and we went through a couple of scenes together.

Has that changed how you feel about the play?

Since it has been my writing, I feel like it’s very personal to an extent. I feel like it is ‘Oedipus Rex’ and all of those many other stories, but then at the same time when I’m talking about the themes and discussing everything with the actors, it feels so personal to me as my own work.

What themes from the original tragedy did you want to highlight in your rewriting of the play?

The question of blame and free will is there. In the original you have the idea of the will of the gods or there's this idea of a power that can’t really be harnessed, and then in the adaptation, we’re talking about polls and the power of the people because obviously we’re looking at it from the perspective of someone who’s in power, and whatever the people want, that’s what they need to do. I’m trying to make sure that everything that we’re talking about doesn’t seem too far out there so we can actually relate to the play.

When you were auditioning your cast, what kinds of things were you looking out for in your central characters?

I was looking for someone who could really put themselves out there and really try and experiment with different things and seeing how flexible and versatile they were with the roles. Because we are exploring ideas of storytelling and changing the narrative and swapping characters and stuff like that, I wanted to see people that could really do different things and could be one character in one scene and then another character in another scene. I like to think of it as an ensemble-based play because everyone is part of the chorus and then people emerge from the chorus and start playing other characters. So that's what I was looking for, people that were able to collaborate with others so that we could create a very coherent and collaborative ensemble, people that could really show me different things.

Oedipus Rex is playing in the Byre Theatre on February 11 and 12th. More information can be found on their Facebook page, and tickets can be purchased using the link: https://byretheatre.com/events/oedipus-rex/?fbclid=IwAR2BEc70w6_sc-UUUN01ZgedBgmOR3WcmlYID9dJFm0CZBhMwzkGaEv6qG0

Photo Credit: Molly Donohoe

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