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| Last updated: 4 June 2003 |
| Oedipus: A Context Part 2 Staging: Oedipus: A Context was staged in St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra on the nights of Monday March 1, Tuesday March 2, and Wednesday March 3. The play ran for some 70 minutes each night and saw capacity crowds of over thrity people on both the Monday and Wednesday nights. The onstage team performed excellently on each and every evening but the offstage team was just as important (okay, not really, but close), particularly Ailish Corcoran on lights and sound, assisted by her boyfriend and Neysa Dunne. Finbar Mehan also proved invaluble with his superb warm up exercises before each show. Stephen Campbell also filmed the show, meaning that all four founding members of CherryPie Productions were in place. The company would actually be formed several weeks later, in the lead up to Admonition. The structure of the show followed the same basic pattern as Sophocles' original - Oedipus comes to Thebes, marries Jocasta, becomes king, tries to solve the mystery of the plague in the land, discovers his wife is his mother and that he has murdered his father, and then blinds himself in despair. The two major structural/ narrative changes in the play are that in this version Apollo is actually a character, despite never appearing in the original; and also, at the end of this play, Oedipus is banished, whereas at the end of Sophocles' text, his punishment still hasn't been decided upon. Due to the imporovised nature of the show, it meant that no two performances were the same and this was something which Neil Gorman, in the central role of Oedipus, thrived upon. By the third night, he was literally throwing himself into the crowd in an attempt to receive mercy, whereas on the first night he had merely addressed the audience, and on the second, merely focused on one poor patron, grabbing his leg as Apollo tries to haul him off. Also, on the second night he spit on the colleges foremost theatre lecturer, Patrick Burke. He also proved unfazed in an incident on the first night which was then incorporated into the subsequent two performances. Playing the role of a priest, Melanie Peel was supposed to enter after Neil delivers his first speech. However, on the first night, he took a pause in the speech, and Melanie came on too early. In the blink of an eye, Neil, as Oedipus, screamed at her to go away, that he wasn't ready for her yet and for her to come back when he was finished talking. The scene worked so well, that on the Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Melanie came on stage at the same moment each time and Neil delivered the same reaction. Another fine piece of improvisation came from John Clarke as the Corinthian messanger who, on the third night, complained to Oedipus when he is detained in Thebes because he's missing the big match between Manchester Uniticus and Inter Milanicus (Man U and Inter were playing in the Euro Cup quarter finals that night). There was also an outstanding perfomance came from Darren Kelly as a highly camp Creon who has a 'special' relationship with a Michealis Georgis and a bunch of eunnchs. Another piece of brillant improvisation came from him when he screamed at Oedipus to stop pulling his hair so tightly (as it turned out Neil had actually pulled his hair a little too tight, but Darren had responded to this in-character and told Oedipus, not Neil, to lay off). On the thrid night of the show, a questions and answers session was held with the audience. Introduced by Neil, this discussion went on for some 45 minutes and prompted many questions from members of the college's English department plus some quiries from the general public. After the show, a party was held onstage which went on for several hours and many members of the cast and crew then headed into the city centre to continue the festivities. on to Oedipus page 3 back to oedipus home page back to products links page back to home |
