A new production of iconic drama at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, starring television and film stars Wanda De Jesus and Jimmy Smits and given a masterful directing vision by David Mendizabal, is a marvel. The stakes are raised as members of a destroyed Puerto Rican family in Ohio live inside the fallout of horrible choices.
But in Robert Icke's contemporary adaptation of the 2,400-year-old Greek tragedy, the real surprise is how long it takes to get there. Now at Studio 54, Oedipus arrives as the fall season's prestige import from abroad, bringing with it an imposing cast led by Mark Strong and Lesley Manville. It's sharply acted and conceptually ambitious. But the extended pacing dilutes the speed and compression that define Sophocles' original.
Taken from the Faustian play The Witch of Edmonton, written in 1621 by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford, Silverman's story, directed by Hecht for Profile Theatre, explores what happens when a devil named Scratch (Joshua J. Weinstein) comes to Edmonton and tries to tempt the villagers into trading their souls in exchange for their secret desires. What Cuddy Banks (Charles Grant) wants is the freedom to pursue his beloved Morris dancing ... and to finally receive some unconditional love and respect from his father, Sir Arthur Banks (George Mount).
For all the barking and grunting Appa does, he proves time and again that his hardened heart can be soft and tender. He bounces around his convenience store with a wisdom that is built from being a neighborhood pillar for years. He obsesses over illegally parked cars, gives away snacks that are relegated to the bottom shelf, and has an entirely cringy line of hilarious ideas as to the hierarchy of thieves.
