'Time turns, sets a backward course, starts for the start with speed: the fragile moments drop unravelling, reversing, unwound, back to the beginning.'

Election night. The polls predict a landslide victory. Everything is about to change.

Award-winning writer and director Robert Icke transforms Sophocles' epic tragedy into an essential and explosive political thriller.

First performed in Dutch in 2018 at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and the Edinburgh International Festival, this arresting version of Oedipus received its English-language premiere at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End in 2024, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, and starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville.

Robert Icke is one of the most visionary figures in theatre today, celebrated for his contemporary re-imaginings of classic texts by Shakespeare, Schiller, Chekhov, Aeschylus and Ibsen.

'Robert Icke is the great hope of British theatre' Time Out

About the Author
Robert Icke is a writer and director. His recent productions include Judas, Children of Nora and Oedipus at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam; Player Kings (West End and UK tour); Enemy of the People (Park Avenue Armory); Animal Farm (UK tour); Ivanov (Schauspiel Stuttgart); and The Doctor (Park Avenue Armory, Adelaide Festival, Almeida, West End and Burgtheater, Vienna). His work while Associate Director at the Almeida (2013-19) included adapting and directing The Wild Duck, Mary Stuart (also West End and UK tour), Uncle Vanya, Oresteia (also West End and Park Avenue Armory) and 1984 (co-created with Duncan Macmillan, also Broadway, West End, UK and international tours). As a director, his productions included Hamlet (also West End, BBC2 and Park Avenue Armory), The Fever and Mr Burns. His awards include two Evening Standard Awards for Best Director, the Critics' Circle Award, the Kurt Hubner Award for his debut production in Germany, and the Olivier Award for Best Director for Oresteia, of which he is the youngest-ever winner. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Reviews

'Exercises a thriller-like grip, the countdown clock marking time, not only until the election results, but before the secrets of the past explode into the present'

* Guardian *

'Stunning... razor-sharp and contemporary... a blinding theatrical experience that remains seared on the retina'

-- Lyn Gardner * Stagedoor *



Book Information
ISBN 9781839043598
Author Robert Icke
Format Paperback
Page Count 112
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 8mm