The Play Oedipus El Rey Makes Mythological Magic at the Huntington’s Calderwood Pavilion

A Well Known story retold with inner city energy

by Jacques Fleury

Oedipus El Rey, which translates to Oedipus The King from playwright Luis Alfaro and directed by Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco, is a re-imagining of the ubiquitous Greek mythology Oedipus into an urbanized modern-day tale of fate and tragedy and what it means to start over. A newborn fated to kill his father and marry his mother is the story in a nutshell but upon closer inspection, it speaks to modern day scenarios about fate and destiny and whether or not one can alter that course or simply succumb to it over the course of our lifetime.

 “We can make connections between the classic text and our own extraordinary histories,” says playwright Luis Alfaro. He goes on to explain what he loves about Greek mythology. He said, “The Greeks…don’t give you answers. They ask questions.” And that is exactly what the play does, it juxtaposes Greek fantasy with modern day reality by depicting people of color, also known as ‘the other’ in experiencing hard knock gang life on the streets resulting in the boomerang of the prison pipeline “where the line to get in…is longer than the life to get out” as said by one of the characters. According to one character, who explained how fathers often willingly commit crimes to get themselves into prison just to be able to raise their sons. 

With a close range and sparse set, it felt like the performance was taking place in my own living room. The production made effective use of, at times, ethereal lighting, props dropping from the ceiling, mythological costuming and sound effects, infusions of erotic sensuality, surprising festive audience participation and effective use of Spanglish, which is a combination of English and Spanish, that brought a level of cultural spice. One audience member in particular, who laughed out loud several times, said she “enjoyed the cultural aspects of the play ” upon my inquiry. Although I did familiarize myself with the myth of Oedipus prior to seeing the play, it is not imperative in order to follow the plot and understand thematic elements. Conversely, the audience member I spoke to was unfamiliar with the story and purposefully did not read about the original mythology so that she can view the play with “fresh eyes” and she found the play to be an “escape” from what is currently going on in America and the world.

I find Oedipus El Rey to be a brilliant and valiant stroke of engineered creativity using European mythology that depict the unequivocally caustic reality of ‘the other’ in American society. It begs the question: can we alter our destiny in spite of the foreboding societal schema that preceded our very own existence? Being a member of ‘the other’ myself as a ‘black’ American man of Caribbean descent, I can certainly identify with challenging the notion of fate and destiny; which I used as an opportunity to thrive rather than surrender to the negative expectations and stereotypes laid out for me and my kind.

The play ended how it began, in classic cyclical fashion, which I thought framed the story quite fittingly in the context of proffering the characters an opportunity to “start over.”  This aspect of the play is reminiscent of what American-born British Poet and pioneer of literary modernism T.S. Eliot wrote about beginnings and endings in his master work: Little Gidding: “We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.”

Giving this philosophical urbanized mythological ethereal laugh out loud and culturally explosive raucous a five out of five stars is no myth.

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Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured and internationally published Haitian American poet, theater reviewer, educator, author of numerous books of essays, reviews, fiction, poetry and literary arts student through Harvard University. It’s Always Sunrise Somewhere and Other Stories among other titles are available at all Massachusetts public libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, Wyoming University, Askews and Holts Library Services, the leading library supply specialist in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Bookstore and the oldest poetry bookstore in America: The Grolier Poetry Book Shop (est. 1927)  has hosted great American poets E. E. Cummings and Alen Ginsberg and online bookstores worldwide such as Bookshop dot com, amazon etc…