‘Traditional, Primeval’ View Rules ‘Oedipus’

Deconstructing a classic is a common directorial approach these days. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Why directors do it is easy to figure out: They’re trying to look at the work through a new prism, hoping to find fresh tones and maybe a contemporary slant.

Often, though the pieces shift around, the story itself remains intact--as in Steve Spehar’s adaptation and staging of Sophocles’ “Oedipus. King.” for Revolving Door Productions at the Tribune Theatre. For the most part, Spehar leaves the myth alone.

In program notes Spehar explains that he used the texts of 11 translators to forge his script, and he has come up with exactly what he wanted, “something even more traditional and primeval in the theatrical context.”

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Spehar’s take on the Oedipus legend, with input from the company, is fascinating. We sometimes forget that these stories took place long before the age of Classical Greece when they were finally written down. In Spehar’s version, the court and those who surround it are shabbily dressed--tribal and roughhewn--just as they might have been in their own time, long before the glitter of fine materials. Their way of thought is also tribal and primeval. This is not an advanced bunch.

Spehar also frames the myth in an intriguing conceit. A modern magician opens a large box, Pandora’s maybe, and takes out staffs and cloths and base implements, which he passes out to the writhing, formless mass of people before him. It is these gifts that draw the tribe into its destiny, giving form to the moira, or karma, and depth to the fear of the unfeeling gods who control its fate.

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The staging is rather abstract in form, poetic in tone and ultimately classical in its simplicity. If it has a flaw, it is the clever but theatrically unnecessary use of a video with modern news anchors describing some of the action. It doesn’t last long and is as distracting as it is effective.

The major players in the fate of the royal house are well-defined in performance, especially as they so often blend in with the dark shading of the tribe. Bradley A. Whitfield is a touching, vulnerable Oedipus, whose destruction is evident to him early on, and Jennifer D. Rendek as his mother/wife Jocasta has a simmering power.

Jennifer Bishton as the tribe leader and Tiresias stands out for a forceful interpretation of Spehar’s tribal milieu and her rich readings, and Christopher Michael Egger’s Creon has the right insecure stature.

If all the readings by the supporting cast are not up to these performances, they do blend into the dark portrait Spehar has created of a legend that still has more meaning for a modern audience than many would imagine. And for Revolving Door, which has lost its lease at the Tribune and is looking for a new home, this is a fitting final production at the venue.

* “Oedipus. King.” Tribune Theatre, 116 1/2 Wilshire Ave., Fullerton. Final performance tonight. 8 p.m. $7. (714) 525-3403. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Bradley A. Whitfield: Oedipus

Jennifer D. Rendek: Jocasta

Jennifer Bishton: Tribe Leader/Tiresias

Christopher Michael Egger: Creon

A Revolving Door Productions adaptation of the Sophocles play, produced by Nicholas Boicourt Jr. Adaptation, direction and scenic design by Steve Spehar. Lighting design: Jim Book. Makeup design: Shari Erickson Young. Sound design: Spehar and Bryan Madigan.