ANTHROPOLIS III

About the show

Oedipus solves the most famous riddle of all time. When the Sphinx asks which creature has only one voice yet walks on two legs at times, three at others, and four at still others—and is all the weaker the more legs it has—Oedipus answers: "Man." The age of the Anthropocene began on a mythical plane. The Sphinx is dead. Yet now that the riddles have been solved, the problems begin. Oedipus—who has just been prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother—is granted rule over Thebes in reward for his triumph. It is an unprecedented decision for the city to entrust power to a stranger. At first, his "rational" reign seems to vindicate the public's choice; the city prospers under his governance. Yet, all the while, he unwittingly slides ever deeper into his destiny. He fathers four children with his mother, Jocasta: the sons Eteocles and Polynices, and the daughters Antigone and Ismene. Then, a plague epidemic breaks out in Thebes. This marks the moment of religion’s return. Apollo, the priestess, and the seer Tiresias launch a counter-offensive. Oedipus, a figure of Enlightenment reason, conducts the first trial based on circumstantial evidence in world literature—with himself as the defendant. Yet, in a final act of self-assertion, he resists the legacy of an absolute truth. But is it in vain? With Oedipus, Sophocles created a masterpiece of literary history. To this day, the tragedy inspires countless reinterpretations of the complex interplay between power and truth to which society is subject.