GREECE: SIR PETER HALL SPEAKS ABOUT HIS PRODUCTION OF SOPHOCLES'S 'OEDIPUS'

Record ID: 386627

  • Title: GREECE: SIR PETER HALL SPEAKS ABOUT HIS PRODUCTION OF SOPHOCLES'S 'OEDIPUS'
  • Date: 30th August 1996
  • Summary: EXCERPTS OF PREMIERE PERFORMANCE WITH MASKED ACTORS
  • Embargoed: 14th September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ATHENS, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAANAUHYANLR6NGG1E1Z4DED9BK
  • Story Text: Sir Peter Hall's striking, masked and robed production of Sophocles's two Oedipus plays was almost a tragic non-event. But the show must go on and so it did last weekend as part of the Athens festival.

    A unique setting, at the site of the play's original performance, the ancient amphitheatre of Epidaurus was once a place of healing and seemed to be the perfect stage for Sir Peter's latest success.

    The production was a headline event in this year's festival, though it looked as if a combination of red tape and serious injury might prevent the thousands who had bought tickets from seeing the production .

    During a technical rehearsal, leading man Alan Howard stepped back off the runway and broke his wrist but returned to perform with his injury on opening night.

    Some 10,000 people were not deterred by rumours of bad luck and filled the auditorium to see Sir Peter's Oedipus over two millenia after the plays were written.

    The traditional masks and robes of the Greek tragedy gave it a hypnotic, ritualistic effect. For the actors, Sir Peter said it gave them a freedom of expression away from contemporary performances.

    Oedipus is to open at London's National Theatre on September 17 before the former director of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre is drawn away from the stage to start an epic motion picture with his wife and son about the 18th century slave trade.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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