On The Misconception Of Oedipus

Perth Theatre Company's latest offering, On The Misconception Of Oedipus, takes the idea of fate and presents us with the question of whether the paths we take in life are really predestined, even when we try with all our might to avoid things. Fresh from a season at Malthouse Theatre, where director Matthew Lutton is Associate Artist (Direction), the show reinvents the Greek myth of Oedipus and Sophocles' famous play to look at what happened before Oedipus murdered his father and got it on with his mother.

The set is simple; an open box with bare plasterboard walls with joints and holes primed for painting, with three microphones and chairs and a reel-to-reel recorder set on a table in the corner. The trio of Richard Pyros as Oedipus, Natasha Herbert as Jocasta and Daniel Schlusser as Laius made the material come alive with their skilled and emotive performances. The story starts off with Oedipus delivering an elaborate monologue that gives the audience an insight into his dark and slightly twisted mind, while Jocasta and Laius portray a couple struggling to conceive a child, with Jocasta fearing she will never have a child and Laius believing that if he has a son then that child will murder him. Lutton and his co-deviser Tom Wright and set designer Zoe Atkinson have developed a play that has taken the story of Oedipus we all know and turned it on its head to create a piece of work that is superbly executed.