Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

Theatre Arts at Curtin’s Hayman Theatre presents OEDIPUS DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE By Daniel Evans

Fast, ferocious and fiendishly funny, "Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore" is what happens when Ancient Greek Tragedy slams into Contemporary Australian Suburbia.

Performed in-the-round, like a vicious game of tag in a boxing-ring, Daniel Evan’s action-packed play dissects the ripples of one violent act across time. The actors play multiple characters moving seamlessly back and forth between the bystanders impacted by the play’s events and a chorus of young people left behind in the mess.

Director Leah Mercer saw a reading of the play at Queensland Theatre Company in 2014 when it won the Qld Premier’s Drama Award.

“I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Even then, with scripts in hand, it was mesmerising. It made me think about why we all seem to make the same mistakes over and over, both as individuals but also on a grander scale. And by using mythology, the stories we tell ourselves over and over, the play brilliantly highlights how these stories continue to speak to us and our mistakes. At a time when we’re being told to be nice, quiet, compliant Australians, this is a play full of righteous, articulate and ‘in-yer-face’ anger. It has something to say about the consequences of violence and the possibility of change. For me it particularly speaks to how even one act of violence against one forgotten individual has repercussions for us all because, after all, we’re all in this together."

"Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore" tells you everything you need to know about the original tale of Oedipus while also creating an entirely new, but sadly familiar, contemporary story.