Icke has given the play a modernity and immediacy which adds to the excitement that you are seeing a drama for the very first time rather than a story which is thousands of years old.  The makeshift election headquarters by Hildegard Bechtler are modern glass and steel with assorted odd chairs.  There are other elements of modernity when Oedipus tells his son Polyneices (James Wilbraham) that he understands that he has a male lover.  Michael Gould is Creon, Jocasta’s brother and a future king of Thebes. Creon’s role here is to advise Oedipus but Tireisias’ prediction that Creon will be the next king, makes Oedipus trust him less.  Creon cautions against the transparency Oedipus seeks.

This is also a love story.  Lesley Manville as Jocasta can be seen in the photographs gazing adoringly at Oedipus. If you are planning to take children, know that Oedipus disappears under Jocasta’s skirt for an erotic head nodding interlude.  Even with the awful revelation that she is both his mother and his wife, the sexual attraction between the two is not diminished.  She doesn’t hang herself in this version but then neither does Oedipus blind himself. 

Bravo to Robert Icke for the freshness of his approach and getting magnificent performances out of Strong and Manville.