Mark Strong and Lesley Manville make ancient tragedy 'Oedipus' a political thriller

Who are you?

That most basic question perplexes people, just as it did when Greek dramatist Sophocles wrote about the cursed king Oedipus two and a half millennia ago.

Screen stars Mark Strong and Lesley Manville return to the London stage in director Robert Icke’s adaptation, “Oedipus,” which fuses the primal power of the ancient tragedy with a modern-day political thriller. It wants anyone who thought identity politics was a new concern to think again.

You’d think there would be no surprises in the story of a ruler who — 2,500-year-old spoiler alert — unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. But on this week's opening night there were gasps from some in the audience at Wyndham’s Theatre as the truth dawned.

“I heard gasping, I heard laughter, and I could hear a pin drop,” Strong told The Associated Press. “We had a little bit of everything, which is perfect.”

Icke sets the action in a campaign headquarters on election night. Strong’s Oedipus is a charismatic outsider politician on the verge of a historic victory, while Manville is his wife and political partner Jocasta. Audience members may hear echoes of the Clintons, or French President Emmanuel Macron and his older spouse Brigitte. When Oedipus pledges to release his birth certificate to quell rumors about his origins, it evokes “birther” conspiracies about Barack Obama.

It turns out to be a rash promise, unraveling a secret about Oedipus’ origins that destroys his sense of identity, his family and his life. In this play, secrets may fester, but the truth is deadly.

Strong said Oedipus’ tragic flaw is what another character calls his “honesty fetish.”

“He is obsessed with the truth,” Strong said. “If he wasn’t such a seeker after the truth, none of the problems would happen.”

The production, which runs until Jan. 4, has drawn positive-to-glowing reviews. The Guardian called it “riveting from beginning to end,” while The Independent said Icke “achieves the monumental feat of taking a Greek drama where (almost) everyone thinks they know what’s going to happen, and turning it into an exercise in tension.”

Icke, 37, is one of Britain’s hottest directors, acclaimed for reinvigorating the classics in productions including another ancient Greek tragedy, “Oresteia,” and the Shakespeare adaptation “Player Kings,” starring Ian McKellen. McKellen, 85, left the play after he tumbled offstage and was hospitalized in June, but says he hopes to return to the role of Falstaff.

Icke first staged “Oedipus,” in Dutch, in Amsterdam in 2018. The pandemic-delayed English production, originally scheduled to open in 2020, reunites Strong and Manville, who both appear in the recently released movie mystery “The Critic” alongside McKellen.

Both are returning to the stage amid busy screen careers. Strong has recently performed in science fiction action pic “Atlas” with J-Lo, sci-fi prequel “Dune-Prophecy” and HBO’s Batman spinoff “The Penguin.”

Manville, who received an Oscar nomination in 2018 for couture drama “The Phantom Thread” and an Emmy nomination as Princess Margaret in two seasons of the royal drama “The Crown,” has had recent roles in Luca Guadagnino’s Venice Film Festival entry “Queer,” the Alfonso Cuaron-directed TV+ series “Disclaimer” and the BBC crime thriller “Sherwood.”

The two actors have smoldering stage chemistry as a couple who are a formidable political force, and in touching family scenes that both leaven and deepen the horror to come, loving parents.

“We’re dealing with a love story, really — the most tragic of love stories,” Manville said. “Because these two people are great together.”

She says Icke combines emotional intelligence with a forensic understanding of the play.

“You can’t say, ‘Oh, all of this is two and a half thousand years ago.’ We’re the same beating hearts, got the same blood running through our veins.”

The play has a new resonance in the age of ancestral DNA tests, when anyone can submit a saliva sample and learn about their origins.

“Everybody wants to know where their place is in the world and who they are,” Strong said. “Maybe I’m a Viking. Who knows?”

It can be risky – sometimes people learn things about their origins that transform their sense of self.

Although, Strong reflected, “if Oedipus had the ability to do that, it could have solved a lot of problems.”