Debut of the Month: OEDIPUS' John Carroll Lynch Tells Audiences to 'Buckle Up!'
Lynch discusses working with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, audience's reactions to the play, and much more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 23, 2025
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John Carroll Lynch is currently making his Broadway debut as Creon in Robert Icke's production of Oedipus, starring alongside Mark Strong, Lesley Manville and more. Lynch is extremely well known as a TV and film actor, having worked with Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Clint Eastwood, Miguel Arteta, Karyn Kusama, John Lee Hancock, Pablo Larraín, and the Coen brothers (who cast him opposite Frances McDormand in 1996’s Academy Award-winning film Fargo.)
In film, John can currently be seen in A24's Sorry, Baby. He recently appeared in Pamela Adlon's Babes opposite Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau; She Rides Shotgun opposite Taron Egerton; and Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7.
On television, John has appeared in 'American Horror Story,' The Walking Dead,' 'Carnivale,' 'The Drew Carey Show,' Craig Zobel’s 'One Dollar,” “Veep' and more. He recently starred alongside Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in the limited series 'Gaslit' on Starz, and in 'White House Plumbers' on HBO. He can currently be seen starring opposite Maggie Q on Amazon’s 'Ballard.'
BroawayWorld spoke with Lynch about making his Broadway debut in Robert Icke's Oedipus!
This production reframes Oedipus as a high-stakes contemporary thriller. How did the modern lens of this production shape the way you approached the work?
The script is so beautifully written, and it holds onto the bones, the structure of the Sophocles’, and the relationships inside the piece, and at the same time lives now in a really visceral and intense way. Quite frankly, it’s just a masterpiece.
This production was super successful in the West End. How did it feel to join the show for its Broadway run?
Nerve-wracking! When you’re joining a thing that’s been so successful, your fear is like, ‘Well I’m going to help screw this up!’ The best part about the rehearsal period was it was not just a remount of the production; it really was an exploration of the piece. So, Rob [Icke, writer and director] made it comfortable for everyone who was joining to feel that everybody was starting on an even Playing Field.
What were rehearsals like, and how has it been working alongside this amazing company, Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, and Robert Icke, who you just mentioned?
It’s such a blessing to work with people who have such strong theater backgrounds, to do a play of this size, scope, and intensity. I’ve so enjoyed the company up and down, the people who joined at the same time I did, and the people who did the production at the Wyndham’s Theatre, everybody has blended so beautifully together into something that is in the same spirit and in the same intensity and commitment as what I believe the Wyndham’s company had. So, it’s been a real joy. And to have, I think, 10 Broadway debuts in the show? Something like that! It’s really amazing how many people are in their first Broadway show.
How did you all feel on opening night?
It was great! You see this group of people, all of whom are at different times of their careers, ranging from people in their 20s to people in their 90s, and making Broadway debuts, it’s really incredible, and it felt great. I’ve done a lot of films in my career, I’ve done a lot of television in my career, but I started in the theater, it’s always been the way I’ve identified, which is as a theater artist. So, it’s been a long break, but this is a ridiculously bountiful experience to come back to the theater in.
The show has been received so incredibly. What has it been like connecting with audience members? What has it been like getting people’s responses to this production?
My sister-in-law came the other day, and she said the perfect thing afterwards, she said, “I wanted to throw up and cry and the same time.” People are shuddering, honestly, when you see them afterwards. I have not been in a piece that has this kind of power, in terms of the audience’s experience. The end of this play really shakes everybody to their core. And part of the reason why it shakes everybody to the core, is because you understand the relationship that you’re seeing play out can’t survive it, and at the same time, you want it to. The audiences are caught in this intense feeling of dread, and inevitability, and sadness of the people involved.
What would you want to tell future audience members about the show?
Buckle up! This piece is not going to let you alone. No matter how you come in, it’s going to take you where it wants you to go. And that’s a tribute to Rob’s beautiful play, his masterful direction, the company’s quality, and most specifically, the chemistry and artistry of Mark and Lesley. The two of them have a relationship in the play that feels so palpably real, and so palpably loving that it’s undeniable. And I just don’t think you need to tell anybody anything. Just, buckle up.
Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share?
It’s an interesting thing to make your Broadway debut in a play of such quality, in a production of such quality, and to have the experience of being with audiences as they live with you through this play, and walk from the theater knowing they’re changed somehow. It’s very special to have that experience. And I just feel really blessed.
