Last Updated on October 9, 2025
A fusion of drama and dance
Oedipus – Old Vic - Review
Hollywood star and Oscar winner Rami Malek plays Oedipus opposite Olivier Award winner Indira Varma as Jocasta in Ella Hickson's new version
Event Type: Event
Event Attendance Mode: OfflineEventAttendanceMode
Event Status: EventScheduled
Performer: Organization
Performer Name: The Old Vic
Start Date: 2025-02-04 13:27
End Date: 2025-03-29 13:27
Availability: InStock
Availability Starts: 2025-02-04T13:27:30
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The Old Vic‘s Oedipus will inevitably draw comparisons with Robert Icke’s version at Wyndham’s Theatre starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville that ended its run in January. While that was played as a sharp, shocking and thought-provoking modern political thriller, this is a visually stunning but dramatically woolly fusion of play and dance set in a drought-ridden dystopia.
Hollywood star and Oscar winner Rami Malek plays Oedipus opposite Olivier Award winner Indira Varma as Jocasta. Hofesh Shechter and Matthew Warchus co-direct Ella Hickson’s new version of Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy, the former directing the dance elements and the latter the drama.
Thebes is in crisis. This dystopian sun-scorched land has run out of water and its people are dying of thirst – a clear nod to climate change. The people are looking to the gods and their leader Oedipus (played with a laidback drawl by Malek) to bring the rains. After all, he saved them before by solving the riddle of Sphinx. He is convinced he can save them again. Rational Jocasta (the ever-reliable Varma) meanwhile urges him to accept that they must leave Thebes. By choosing to stay and consult the oracle, Oedipus puts himself and his family on a path to disaster.
The answer to all of Thebes’ problems lies in finding the murderer of Laius, Oedipus’s predecessor as King and his wife’s first husband. “Vengeance will be taken on the killer, then the land will be clean. The contamination will be washed away. The rains will come and the people will be healed,” says the seer. Addressing his people from a microphone at the front of the stage, Oedipus promises to be the man who brings the murderer to justice – whatever the cost.
In place of Sophocles’ usual chorus, this Oedipus has contemporary dance interludes. Hofesh Shechter’s choreography is often thrilling to watch and the skill of the dancers unquestionable. But, if like me you are not a natural at interpreting interpretive dance, you may be left wondering what the connection is between the unfolding drama and the dances. Rather than being fully engaged in the performance, I found my mind wandering as it searched for meaning. Are they portraying the starving citizens of Thebes or the swirling thoughts in Oedipus’s brain?
The relationship between Oedipus and Jocasta isn’t given room to breathe and reveal itself naturally in the rushed theatrical side of this show of two not necessarily compatible halves. She speaks a couple of sentences about how much she loves him and later the pair share a kiss. We are not allowed to feel their passion nor are we shown the depth of their bond so when the big reveal happens we cannot feel their agony.
I wasn’t timing it but it felt like the dance interludes took up a good half of the one hour and 40 minute running time (no interval). This left not enough time to flesh out the characters or to turn the inevitability of the tragedy that is coming Oedipus’s way and its reasons into the usual fascinating conundrum.
That said, this version of Oedipus is a visual treat, making full use of the depth of the Old Vic stage (the seats rows A to F have been removed from the auditorium to extend our sightlines far further back than is normally the case here). The lighting is simply spectacular and turns this Thebes into a land where the giant sun feels like it has come far too close to the Earth.
This production has much to commend, it’s entertaining enough but ultimately it left me unmoved.
Oedipus runs at the Old Vic until 29 March 2025
The Old Vic
The Cut
London SE1 8NB
I quite agree once is mire than enough for the dance not throughout totally detracted from the play which is the relationship between the 2 main characters which ruined it.