Friends of Borges

Homer Theatre & Centre for Classical Studies

... "we ... take our fire, too, from the flame lit by a faith that is thousands of years old, that Christian faith which was also the faith of Plato, that God is the truth, that truth is divine."
F. Nietzsche

A Greek amphitheater on the slops of the mountain, with perfect acoustic, and the largest bay in Europe at the horizon the Mediterranean see ... such is the perfect location for a theatrical venue ... which a great Hellenist wants to direct ... a program of continuous education ...

"Oedipus the King" by Shophocles
from 1984 TV production with Michael Pennington, Claire Bloom and John Shrapnel. T
ranslated and directed by the late Don Taylor.







[clip ends with a preview of the next play: Oedipus at Colonus.]
from Richard Y Hathorn's "The Existential Oedipus" (1958):
Sophocles does not waste his time and the reader's patience by making Oedipus lament at the last that he could not help doing what he did or being what he is. To look upon oneself as the mere product of external causes is to make oneself a thing instead of a person, as the existentialist philosophers never tire of pointing out. Oedipus is horrified at having been his own self-accuser, but he does not therefore retract the accusation. He realizes that he is a scapegoat; he does not complain that he is a goat. Determinism, theories of heredity and environment, fatalism: all are devices, not for expailining guilt and evil, but for explaining them away, away from ourselves, at all costs; Oedipus disdains to avail himself of these devices. Rather, he reaches his true moral stature at the end of the play.
For a man is never more conscious of being a person and less conscious of being a thing than when the self is accusing itself and accepting its own guilt. The willingness to accept guilt is an indispensable step toward the goal of self-knowledge; an animal, a savage, or a child cannot fully grasp the concept of guilt; similarly an adult who falls into deteministic excuses for his behavior shuts the door on the possibilty of self-development. But a person reaches his greatest intensity of self-consciousness when he simultaneously plays the part both of the accuser and the accused. To such intensity the individual will not rise as long as his external fortunes are in a condition of prosperity; herein lies the necessity of tragedy.
Directed by
Don Taylor
Writing credits:
Sophocles play
Don Taylor translation
Cast:
Michael Pennington ... Oedipus Rex
John Shrapnel ... Creon
Cyril Cusack ... Priest
Ernest Clark ... Chorus
David Collings ... Chorus
Donald Eccles ... Chorus
Robert Eddison ... Chorus
Edward Hardwicke... Chorus
Denys Hawthorne ... Chorus
Noel Johnson ... Chorus
Clifford Rose ... Chorus
Alan Rowe ... Chorus
Nigel Stock ... Chorus
John Woodnutt ... Chorus
Cassie Shilling ... Antigone
Kelly Huntley ... Ismene
Produced by
Louis Marks
Original Music by
Derek Bourgeois
Film Editing by
Dave Hambelton
Production Design by
David Myerscough-Jones
Costume Design by
Jane Hudson
Other crew
Geoffrey Lewis .... classical advisor

"Oedipus the King" by Pasolini, scene: Oedipus kills his Father