From left, Stefanie Lekkas, Camilla Blunden, Eleanor Platt, Dene Kermond, Emma Strand and Linda Chen. Photo by Alex Hobba
Ancient critic Aristotle thought it was, and Aspen Island Theatre Company director Julian Hobba is not about to disagree with him.
“Dramatic, brilliant and economical, its structure is peerless”, he tells “CityNews” as he prepares for an uncommon venture, “Four Day Oedipus” to take place in a pop-up “Greek” theatre created by Cox Architecture partner Ronan Moss in the middle of Civic Square.
“Four Day Oedipus” will be the finale of “The Public Theatre”, a two-week program of performances featuring bands, storytelling, slam poetry, film screenings, cabaret, plays, conversations and even a lecture on Ancient Greek democracy.
I’m an “Oedipus” fan, too, and we discuss the sophisticated ironies in the work, as the overly bright, hubristic King Oedipus (played by Dene Kermond) embarks on an investigation to find a murderer – it’s him.
We all knew that. The Greeks knew it, too, so we watch as this self-made man and “solver of riddles” sets a trap for himself, finding out that he killed his father and married his mother, then brutally blinds himself in his moment of insight.
That kind of intellectual arrogance sounds rather familiar and it hit Hobba that “Oedipus” was oddly relevant to a city in which some of our most brilliant leaders have walked blindly into their own traps.
“It’s about leadership, about the blindness of leaders who are always blaming someone else”, Hobba says.
“But there’s such nobility in Oedipus’ suffering – a man undertaking a search for truth, no matter what the consequences may be.”
Hobba shows “CityNews” a plan of the 160-seat auditorium, swathed in a soft fabric normally used on building sites. You’ll enter through a “gateway” formed by the twin Civic Square fountains, to the box office and bar. Seating will be around a six-metre diameter circular performance.
With plans and a crowd-funding campaign underway, he and his fellow-director Katie Cawthorne, from Canberra Youth Theatre, put the call out to the community for actors, not necessarily those with training. “We wanted people who had a personal connection to the play,” he says, although they did have a nucleus of principals, not least Kermond, of “Muriel’s Wedding” fame.
They aim to create a staged reading of “Oedipus the King” over four days, with Cawthorne directing a “really fabulous chorus” and the principals stepping in and out of that chorus.
“We want to give people an idea of the power of tragedy,” Hobba says.
“The Public Theatre”, Civic Square, November 17-29. Program and bookings at aitc.org.au or tickets at the box office. Performances will go ahead whatever the weather.
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