Oedipus Schmoedipus
Written by post (Zoë Coombs Marr, Mish Grigor & Natalie Rose)
after Aeschylus, Anon, Barrie, Behn, Boucicault, Büchner, Chekhov, Euripides, Gogol, Goldsmith, Gorky, Hugo, Ibsen, Jonson, Marlowe, Mayakovsky, Molière, Pirandello, Plautus, Racine, Seneca, Shakespeare
Oedipus Schmoedipus takes dozens of the great theatre classics, picks out the death scenes, mixes them together and hands them back to the people. Created by Australia’s silliest and smartest performance makers, this is clever theatre with an outrageous sense of humour.
Production photography by Sarah Walker
“Brilliant… shockingly funny to watch.”
Fed up with white men staging the deaths of white men in plays written by white men, the white ladies of post have pirated the classics to confront the great unknown.
Oedipus Schmoedipus is about death: real death, fake death, and the Western theatrical canon. It’s joyful and dark, stupid and smart, hilarious and confronting.
An ambitious epic and an intentionally impossible task, Oedipus Schmoedipus compiles all the death scenes ever written. We see Death and ‘The Canon’ as inextricably intertwined; ‘live’ performance, a ‘dead’ language, an actor’s ‘presence’, or an author’s legacy.
From Portland in Victoria to Mandurah in WA, post will be joined by a new cast of 25 local volunteers for every performance on this tour. When it comes to engaging with communities, there really isn’t anything quite like it.
Straddling live art, theatre and contemporary performance practices, post take being silly very seriously, and have a real commitment to innovation. Their deep irreverence for the institution of theatre and deep reverence for the magic moment of the liveness it houses has amused, bemused and probably annoyed audiences for the past ten years.
reviews
"★★★★ Their satirical lecture on the canon can be riotously silly, but it lands stinging blows on theatre’s classism.”
Rebecca Harkins-Cross, The Age full review
"Provoking, endlessly glib, yet curiously joyous, I’d put money on this being the most divisive show of the year.”
Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald full review
“Endlessly fascinating, amusing and relatable… equally joyful, dark and moving… It is a touching performance"
Tennessee Mynott-Rudland, AussieTheatre.com full review
"What’s so great about Oedipus Schmoedipus is that Coombs Marr and Grigor unpack famous death quotes without a hint of pretension… whilst still managing to wittily comment on notions of gender, sexuality and religion."
Reuben Liversidge, ArtsHub full review
Previous Tour
February to May, 2018
CREDITS
Directors Zoë Coombs Marr & Mish Grigor
Composer James Brown
Designer Robert Cousins
Producer Harley Stumm for Intimate Spectacle
Performers Zoë Coombs Marr Shelly Lauman and 25 local volunteers
If you are interested in touring get in contact!
Arts on Tour
02 8038 1880
touring@artsontour.com.au
Arts on Tour is based in Redfern NSW and we respectfully acknowledge the Gadigal people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the unceded land on which we work.
As we tour artists and productions across these vast lands, we pay our respect to all First Nations Elders, past, present and future.
We celebrate their continuing connection and contribution to culture, country and community, and thank all First Nations peoples for their wisdom in caring for the land, the sky, the rivers and the sea.