NEW VOICES IN CLASSICAL RECEPTION STUDIES
Issue 4 (2009)
L I M I N AL ’ S K OS K Y ’ S H U GH E S ’ S A R T AU D ’ S S E NE C A ’ S O E DI P U S
© Helen Slaney, Monash University
A B S T R ACT
Ted Hughes’s adaptation of Seneca’s Oedipus occurred at a seminal moment in the
development of twentieth-century Classical theatre production. This paper examines
Hughes’s treatment in terms of both its genealogical background and its ongoing
afterlife. Already a work which was haunted by multiple predecessors—predominantly
Sophocles, but not exclusively—Seneca’s Oedipus could offer Hughes an effective
source-text, but not an absolute origin. Hughes’s translation subsequently acquired a
powerful reputation of its own, gaining independence from the Latin text it has now
almost come to overshadow. The intertwined Oedipal metaphors of plague/epidemic and
disrupted succession are readily applicable to the performance reception of Hughes’s
(Seneca’s) Oedipus. There is nothing linear about its descent.
The performative dimension adds further complexity to Oedipus’s evolution. Beginning
with a production staged by Melbourne-based experimental company Liminal in 2008,
this paper traces the reception of Seneca’s (Hughes’s) Oedipus back via its performance
history. In addition to Liminal’s, I concentrate on three influential productions: Peter
Brook’s in 1968, Richard Schechner’s in 1977 and Barrie Kosky’s in 2000. Each of these
productions displays in some way the compulsion to claim an origin, whether this be
found in ancient ritual, linguistic instinct, translated text or the actor’s own body. In
tracking down the source/s of Liminal’s Oedipus, and attempting to determine the
causae of this particular outbreak of Theban plague, this paper engages with the
broader theories of performance reception which are currently reshaping the concept of
Classical theatre.
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