Lesley Manville and Mark Strong are spellbinding in Robert Icke’s wrenchingly tense reworking of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy. Here Oedipus is an insurgent political wunderkind, a bit Macron and a bit Obama. His promise to govern openly and honestly opens up the worst possible cache of family secrets, from patricide to incest.
Strong’s smart, passionate, utterly believable relationship with the luminous Manville as his older wife Jocasta roots the unravelling suspense as a rear-stage digital clock ticks down to Oedipus’s election victory.
