INTERVIEW: Directors Company stages modern take on ‘Oedipus’ tale
Photo: Oedipus: Sex With Mum Was Blinding plays a limited engagement at BAM Fisher. Photo courtesy of Elias Moraitis / Provided by Coyle Entertainment with permission.
One can probably guess at the radical modernization of The Directors Company’s new production of Oedipus simply by reading the opera’s subtitle: Sex With Mum Was Blinding.
This immersive opera, from the mind of writer and director Elli Papapakonstantinou, plays through Sunday, Sept. 29 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Fisher Space. ODC Ensemble co-produces the show.
The narrative is inspired by Sophocles’ classic text, but soon enough it’s warped into a contemporary mashup thanks to pop culture references and gender reexaminations. The all female cast works hard to make this an unforgettable Oedipus.
“We came on sort of later in the game, so Ellie Papapakonstantinou, the creator, has been developing it at Stanford [University],” said Leah Michalos, producer of The Directors Company. “She was developing it at Stanford and then took it over to Greece to further develop it, and then we got in touch about six months ago. And she kind of wanted to know how to become involved in The Directors Company and what process that all entails because at The Directors Company we encourage director-driven projects. This Oedipus falls well within our mission, and it’s exciting because it’s exactly what we hope directors will want to create: Take something so classic as the Oedipus tragedy and reimagine it a completely different way. So she kind of has been working with me at The Directors Company to see how she can bring it to fruition here in New York, and so finally she ended up deciding BAM was the best place, which it is for this.”
Michalos called the production very modern and a theatrical mashup, essentially an immersive opera the mixes traditional performance with cutting-edge technology.
“It brings the audience into the play to rediscover the community at the heart of a political performance, which is like it was in Greece,” she said. “You’re not going to go walk in and expect to sit down and watch a traditional opera. It’s video. It’s sound. … And it’s all mashing it up and helps the audience think, why are we here? Do we have the choice of free will?”
The Directors Company, as the name implies, is focused on the work of directors. Much like there are actor and playwright companies in New York, TDC is all for these unique theatrical interpreters.
“We encourage directors to come and use our space to create their own vision,” Michalos said. “We have established directors that we work with quite a bit, but we also have workshops and classes for emerging directors to come and use our space. We have a studio on 42nd Street that we open up to directors to explore their work, whether it’s a reading or testing out different movements for a piece. Whatever it is the director wants to do or explore, we like to give them the opportunity to do that.”
Michalos has been with the company for 11 years out of its 40-year history. She joined right at the time TDC was taking Irena’s Vow, a play about the Holocaust, to Broadway.
“It was two months after I joined on, so it was an interesting thing to jump into,” she said. “We always hope that a play has a long life on the stage, whether it’s in New York or touring. Whatever it is, for it to have a life beyond us, that’s always our goal.”
Today’s theatrical scene can be financially difficult and competitive for a nonprofit theater. Michalos is mostly focused on the business side of The Directors Company, and she needs to overcome many obstacles in her daily struggles. However, the rewarding work that the company produces, such as Oedipus, makes it all worth it in the end.
“It is a difficult climate at the moment,” Michalos said. “A lot of theaters are booked, and there are waitlists for certain theaters. Trying to figure out what producers want to put money behind what projects is a challenge because not everything is going to be the next Hamilton.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Oedipus: Sex With Mum Was Blinding, written and directed by Elli Papapakonstantinou, plays through Sept. 29 at BAM Fisher. Click here for more information and tickets.
