Review: The Huntington's OEDIPUS EL REY Turns Tragedy Into Triumph

Playwright Luis Alfaro aimed high when he decided to bring Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” from 429 BC into the 21st century with “Oedipus El Rey,” his contemporary retelling of the Greek tragedy set in a Los Angeles barrio.

He hit his target, too, when Loretta Greco, now artistic director of The Huntington, helmed the 2009 premiere production of the play at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, where she was then artistic director. The play was subsequently presented off-Broadway at The Public Theatre in 2017 and is currently giving Alfaro his debut at The Huntington with a riveting new production, created for Boston and again directed by Greco, at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through June 14.

The story is by no means new, of course, but Alfaro’s update makes it feel timely and relevant. It is predestined that King Laius (Gabe Martínez), refashioned here as an L.A. gang leader, will be killed by his own son. The king takes measures to make that prophecy fail and sends his infant son Oedipus (Juan Arturo) with his henchman Tiresias (Victor Almanzar) to be killed.

Tiresias can’t follow through with those orders, however, and Oedipus is given a second chance at life – even if it is in reform schools that lead to his incarceration in the California State Prison system, where he is surrounded by fellow prisoners (Jaime José Hernández, Almanzar, and Javier David) who serve as a kind of Chicano Greek chorus weaving in and out of the story. He also spends time there with his protector Tiresias, whom he believes to be his father, reading books and learning life lessons.

By the time Oedipus is released, Laius’s tight hold is loosening. His wife Jocasta (Melisa Soledad Pereyra), still grieving the son she believes is dead, grows distant from her husband while his abuse only intensifies. The now free Oedipus encounters Laius without knowing their real relationship. Laius dies during an altercation with Oedipus, who later romances Jocasta in sensualized style, before the seers reveal the truth to him.

Oedipus is, not surprisingly, a complex character – both noble thinking-man and immature hothead. Arturo makes Oedipus stand as a natural leader even as his too-often dour demeanor leads him to doom. Pereyra’s Jocasta is a force throughout, from young mother to hardened widow. And when Oedipus’s romancing re-ignites her sexual side, she is once again a romantic heroine.

The wedding of Oedipus and Jocasta provides a respite from the heavy drama by including the audience – provided with maracas, castanets, and more – in the joyful celebration, made even more so by scenic and projection designer Hana S. Kim’s brightly colored set and beautifully rendered projections, Reza Behjat’s evocative lighting design, and the show’s original music by sound designer Jake Rodriguez. Alex Jaeger’s costumes have appealing theatricality, while still seeming authentic to place and time.

A sex scene involving bare bodies is always risky – especially on a Boston stage, as anyone who remembers the 2002 pre-Broadway run of “The Graduate” at the Colonial Theatre, where Kathleen Turner was a fully frontally nude Mrs. Robinson, will attest. Our Puritan roots, after all, have yet to be fully buried, and theater audiences can still be made uncomfortable by what they see as too much skin. Greco doesn’t let that happen here, however, and the encounter in question is sensual and even artful, without being exploitative.

Being presented in the intimate Roberts Studio Theatre, with a thrust stage and the audience on three sides, the 100-minute, single act production is emotionally enveloping, and Alfaro’s well fleshed out script is strongly supported in every way.

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