"Just really very good. Everyone
Interesting. Enticing. Well directed. "
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Joseph P from Montclair on Dec 20, 2025
Lesley Manville in Oedipus
"Terrific production. Impeccable acting. Even though we know the tale of Oedipus Rex, the ending is still a shocker."
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Broadway.com Customer on Dec 18, 2025
Oedipus the politician
"This powerful modernized version of Oedipus begins with a speech by the kind of modern candidate for high office that we would all identify with. This makes his tragedy hit our emotions in the same powerful way the original hit the Ancient Greeks. "
"It was breathtaking and the acting was masterclass."
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Broadway.com Customer on Oct 31, 2025
Reinterpreting a tale of love and intrigue in Ancient Greece
"The acting was excellent; twists in the plot fascinating. A wonderful afternoon of theatre! "
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Broadway.com Customer on Dec 2, 2025
Intense play and difficult to hear
"Incredible acting but very difficult to hear in back of orchestra "
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Broadway.com Customer on Dec 11, 2025
Skilled actors but an adaptation that doesn’t work
"I like to support theatre that strives for unique approaches to storytelling especially something as rich and fascinating as Oedipus and I really wish I had better news. But, this adaptation doesn’t work. Skilled actors can make a bad play better but they can’t make it good.
It was repetitive, monotonous, defied logic and ultimately pointless.
We already know what’s going to happen so we are REALLY just waiting for the reveal, which takes forever and when it does occur is forced to the point of (almost) bad melodrama. (People on either side of me were falling asleep)
I could go on but suffice it to say, I cannot recommend. Your money is better spent elsewhere. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Dec 20, 2025
Boring and poorly written
"The text is cliche ridden and dull. Much of what goes on for 2 hours is pointless as if the playwright is trying to fill the time of a page quota. Trying to compensate for overall dullness by lame sex jokes and an imitation sex act is pathetic. Other than the two main male characters the acting is amateurish. I wanted to leave in the middle but was sitting in the middle of a densely packed row, decided not to bother other viewers. "
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Vladimir K from Teaneck on Jan 30, 2026
It just wasn't for me.
"The adaptation suffers from 'tonal dissonance.' By rewriting Sophocles into casual, modern vernacular (lots of 'umms,' 'okays,' and campaign jargon), the play strips away the mythic stakes. When characters discuss incest and murder with the same casual tone used for polling numbers, the horror doesn't land—it just feels awkward. The attempt to be 'hyper-real' actually makes the interactions feel less believable.
The production leans too heavily on the aesthetic of a Netflix political drama at the expense of the story's emotional core. Framing Oedipus as a 'Mike Prince' style tech-populist turns a story about Fate and Gods into a mundane procedural about a PR scandal. The countdown clock on stage, while meant to add tension, ultimately feels like a gimmick that rushes the actors through moments that require deep emotional breathing room.
he direction fails to manage the tone effectively, resulting in accidental comedy during the climax. Because the setting is so sterile and the acting so clinical, the revelations of the tragedy land as punchlines rather than horror. When an audience laughs during the final devastation of Oedipus, it is a sign that the modernization has distanced them from the characters' pain rather than drawing them in.
While Mark Strong delivers a commanding performance, this production is a 'political thriller' that forgets to be a tragedy. It trades emotional depth for clever pacing tricks (like the onstage clock), leaving us with a slick, cold exercise that feels more like a contrived TV writer's room than a classic Greek myth."
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Timothy M from Bourne on Jan 6, 2026
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About
Oedipus
It’s election night. The polls predict a landslide victory. Everything is about to change.
Director Robert Icke transforms Sophocles’ epic tragedy into an essential, explosive, sensual human thriller catapulting the secrets of the past into a high-stakes present.
