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In the city-state of Thebes, ruled by Oedipus, a terrible plague has broken out. The chorus implore Oedipus to save Thebes. Oedipus agrees to do so. His brother-in-law Creon has gone to see the Oracle at Delphi. He will be back shortly with advice. Creon arrives. The Oracle at Delphi demands the killer of Laius, the previous ruler of Thebes, be punished by explusion from Thebes. This killer is to blame for the plague. Oedipus curses the killer of Laius. He demands that anyone in the city who knows anything about this man come forward and curses anyone who withholds information. Creon says that the old, blind prophet Tiresias has been sent for. He will offer further advice.ÌýÌý

Tiresias enters but refuses to say anything, despite pleading from Oedipus. Oedipus condemns him. Finally Tiresias pronounces his verdict: Oedipus himself is the killer of Laius. Worse – he has defiled his marriage bed. He predicts Oedipus will end his days as a blinded beggar himself. Oedipus is outraged. Oedipus accuses Creon of attempting to take the throne, using Tiresias as accomplice. Creon furiously denies this. Their argument circles around until Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife (and sister of Creon) interrupts them and admonishes them for indulging in petty argument at this time. Jocasta tries to calm Oedipus by explaining that no one can predict the future – neither prophets nor oracles. She proves this by revealing that an Oracle once foretold that her first husband Laius would die at the hands of his own son. But Laius was killed by robbers at a place where three roads meet. The baby son of Laius and Jocasta was killed by having his feet pinned together and being left to die on a mountainside. The prophecy proved untrue.

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Oedipus nervously asks where and when exactly Laius was murdered. Jocasta’s answers terrify him. He tells her why: he grew up in Corinth as the only son of King Polybus and Queen Merope. But once a drunkard accused him of being neither parents’ son. He went to see the Oracle at Delphi, who told him he was to kill his own father and marry his mother by whom he would have children, ‘a tribe too terrible to show their face’. He fled Corinth, and on his way to Thebes, at a place where three roads meet, he encountered a chariot with an old man and servants. A violent argument ensued as they tried to force him off the road. He lashed out in self-defence, killing the old man and at least some of the servants. Supposing that old man were Laius? Jocasta dismisses the whole idea as nonsense. But one of the servants with Laius when he was killed has survived – when he came back and saw how things were in Thebes, he asked to be sent out into the country to work as a shepherd. Oedipus sends for him urgently. They leave.

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The chorus is disturbed by Jocasta’s assertion that prophets and oracles are frauds; they reflect on the role fate plays in shaping our lives. Jocasta returns, complaining that Oedipus is full of fears and delusions. Even she can no longer calm him. A Stranger arrives from Corinth. King Polybus is dead – Corinth wants Oedipus as their King.

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Jocasta rejoices at this news and tells it to Oedipus. He remains fearful that he will marry his mother. The Stranger offers to dispel this fear. He affirms that Oedipus was not in fact the son of Polybus or his wife. The Stranger himself gave Oedipus as a baby to them, since they were childless. Oedipus learns that the Stranger, at that time a shepherd, was handed the baby on Mount Cithaeron by a fellow shepherd. The baby was lame – his feet had been pierced together. Jocasta panics. Oedipus ignores her pleas to leave the matter alone – he must know his origins. Jocasta utters a wail of despair as she leaves the stage. Oedipus dismisses her panic lightly.

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The survivor from Laius’ murder enters: he is also the same Shepherd who handed Oedipus over as a baby to the Stranger from Corinth. The Stranger tries to remind him of the incident; the old Shepherd pleads amnesia, but Oedipus forces him physically to tell the truth. The Shepherd finally reveals that Jocasta gave him her own baby with its feet pinned together, instructing him to leave it exposed to die on Mouth Cithaeron. Oedipus has heard the truth. He has killed his father and married his mother. He cannot react. He leaves the stage. The chorus comment on his fate. A Messenger tells news of Jocasta’s suicide and Oedipus’ blinding himself with her broaches. The Messenger and Creon thrust Oedipus, blinded and bloody, into public view. Oedipus sings a lament. His daughter Antigone is led to him; Oedipus laments her fate, but is brutally interrupted by Creon. Such things should not be seen in public. He wrenches Antigone from Oedipus. Creon will take charge of Thebes now. Oedipus is left alone: ‘My day, my day has turned into night.’

Time rushes forward to events many years later. Following a civil war for the throne of Thebes between the two sons of Oedipus – Polynices and Eteocles – Creon has taken power again. We see the results of his rule: he has turned Thebes into an efficient police state. The sons of Oedipus died fighting each other. Creon pronounces his verdict: the body of Eteocles, who defended Thebes, will be honoured with a state funeral. The body of Polynices, who attacked Thebes, will be left to rot, exposed to be feasted upon by dogs and carrion. Anyone defying this order will be killedÌý

Creon demands the chorus see his orders are carried out. The chorus expresses obedience. In a short orchestral interlude, we see Antigone, Oedipus’ daughter, attempting to bury her brother Polynices. She is seized by Creon’s soldiers and processed before him. He taunts her for defying his decree, but she proudly admits her crime. ‘If I die before my time, so be it. I buried my brother…what greater glory could I have?’ Creon orders her to be locked in a cell awaiting execution. Creon’s son Haemon is engaged to be married to Antigone. He is profoundly disturbed by his father’s actions. Creon’s misogynistic response reveals his irrational jealousy of Antigone. ‘A woman’s pleasure is a paltry thing. Spit on this woman before she spits on you.’ Deeply shocked, Haemon tells his father Thebes disagrees with his rule. In a violent argument, Haemon threatens to kill himself unless Antigone is pardoned. Creon ridicules the idea and dismisses his son as a ladies’ sop.

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Antigone reappears. Addressing the people of Thebes, she sings her deathsong. She asks to be buried next to her father Oedipus, her mother Jocasta and her brothers. Creon orders her to be walled up in a cave and left to die. She is led away. The blind prophet Tiresias enters and condemns Creon’s autocratic rule and his leaving Polynices body to rot: ‘I tell you, the stubborn are stupid.’ Creon is horrified; but when he asks Tiresias advice, Tiresias refuses to answer. The chorus point out that Tiresias has never lied. Panicked by the terrible implications of what he has done, Creon rescinds the order to kill Antigone. She is to be freed, and Polynices’ body will a last be buried. The chorus rush offstage to save Antigone.

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It is too late: the dead bodies of Antigone and Haemon are brought on. The chorus explains that Antigone hanged herself ‘in her bed and bolster of hardest stone’. Seeing this Haemon, in a wild fury against his father Creon, committed suicide in front of him. Creon is bereft, surrounded by death and destruction. The chorus offers him no consolation: ‘Face your fate.’

Time now runs back to show us the events before the catastrophe in Act II. In a sacred wood, Colonus, outside Athens, Oedipus, blind and by now very old, is being led by his young daughter Antigone. As they arrive at the wood, we hear forest murmurs on the orchestra. Antigone comments that the wood is lush with vines, olives. A Stranger arrives: he warns Oedipus to leave at once: ‘this place is holy. The spot you stand on, exactly there, leads from this world to the next.’ Oedipus sends the Stranger away with a riddle-like message to Theseus, King of Athens: ‘If he does next to nothing, he’ll gain much.'Ìý

Oedipus reveals to Antigone that the god Apollo has told him he would find his final rest in a strange place such as this. He senses he will die here: ‘Have pity on Oedipus, this walking ghost.’ The voices of guardians of Colonus are heard, indignant at the news of Oedipus arrival. They warn Oedipus he stands on sacred land. Oedipus tells them he is himself holy and will bring Athens much good luck.

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Theseus, King of Athens, enters. He knows who Oedipus is and offers him sanctuary in the wood at Colonus. Oedipus thanks him and repeats his promise of protection to Athens.

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Theseus says a close relation of Oedipus has arrived. It is his hated son Polynices. Oedipus recoils: ‘I loathe beyond loathing the sound of his voice.’ Polynices begs his sister Antigone to intercede with their father on his behalf. Frightened, she asks him why he has come. He explains that as Oedipus’ son he has laid claim to ruling Thebes. He is waging civil war on his own brother Eteocles in this aim, and has assembled seven armies against Thebes. But without his Oedipus’ support, they cannot win. To Antigone’s horror, Oedipus violently repudiates his son. He bitterly curses both Polynices and his brother. Physically spurning Polynices, he predicts their deaths by each other’s hands. Stunned, Polynices retreats. He resigns himself to death. Antigone pleads with him to turn back, but he merely begs her to honour him with a proper funeral: ‘If I must die, I die.’

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Oedipus sits down, exhausted. Creon arrives. He too begs Oedipus to come back to Thebes and save the city. Oedipus mocks his sympathy: ‘Useless, that’s what you are to me: Full of fine words and utterly false.’ In an attempt to force Oedipus to comply, Creon seizes Antigone from Oedipus and starts to beat her up. The ensuring uproar attracts King Theseus, who warns Creon that unless he releases Antigone, he won’t leave alive. Reluctantly, Creon releases her. Antigone and her father are ecstatically reunited. As they sing of their happiness, they thank Theseus for his kindness. Creon leaves, ridiculing Theseus for hosting ‘a man who killed his own father. And who accompanies him? The daughter he sired with his own mother.’ The voices of the gods are heard on the chorus, calling Oedipus to the next world. Oedipus realises his time is over. In a final surge of energy, he proclaims that Theseus may see him die: this will bring Athens lasting protection. But his daughter Antigone, though he loves her, must neither see him die, nor even see where he dies.

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Oedipus, though blind, leads Theseus offstage in the direction of a bright light. As this light grows ever more intense, Antigone is left onstage, bewailing her father. ‘How can I express my grief to you? Father, these eyes of mine flood to overflowing. Father, father!’ The curtain falls.

Julian Anderson