Tragedy After Oedipus: A Mother Tries to Stop Her Sons’ War

The fourth installment of “Anthropolis,” a large-scale theater project that traces the tragedy of Thebes’ royal house in ancient Greek mythology to probe the violence of humanity and civilization, is coming to the stage. “Anthropolis” is a cycle of five plays reimagined from ancient Greek tragedy and myth by Roland Schimmelpfennig, a leading figure in contemporary German theater. The title combines “Anthropozän,” the German word for the Anthropocene, with “Polis,” the Greek word for city. It premiered in 2023 at Deutsches SchauSpielHaus in Hamburg, Germany, and portrays Thebes from its founding to its downfall across five parts: “Prologue/Dionysus,” “Laius,” “Oedipus,” “Jocasta” and “Antigone/Epilogue.” The National Theater Company of Korea staged the Korean premieres of Parts 1 and 2 last year and is presenting Parts 3 through 5 in sequence this year.

The company will perform “Anthropolis IV — Jocasta” at Myeongdong Theater from Oct. 28 to Nov. 21. Schimmelpfennig wrote the work drawing inspiration from Aeschylus’ “Seven Against Thebes” and Euripides’ “The Phoenician Women,” and Seo Ji-hye directs.

The story begins after Oedipus, realizing he had unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, blinds himself. His two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, agree to alternate in holding the throne of Thebes, but war erupts when the elder brother, Eteocles, breaks the pact. Their mother, Jocasta, steps in to mediate in an attempt to prevent her sons’ ruin.

Jocasta, placed at the center of the tragedy in the original myth, is reborn here not as a figure dragged along by fate but as a political actor trying to change it. She argues to her sons that while they once had no choice, they can now choose peace. Yet despite her appeals for compromise and coexistence, the desire for power drives them toward war.

The staging blends ancient Thebes with today’s battlefields. The fighting around the seven gates of Thebes features cruise missiles, snipers, the United Nations and war correspondents. Gunfire, sirens, dust and blood-red hues also make the ancient myth appear layered over a modern civil war. “We look at war not simply as destruction and sorrow but through the wider lens of civilization and human history,” the director said. “It is a work that goes as far as asking, ‘How far will a civilization that cannot stop itself go?'”

The billboard, the large structure that runs through the series, returns as well. Pouring out news, the billboard symbolizes the advance of civilization while also revealing the nature of media, which constantly injects information and desire and steers the human gaze and thought in particular directions.

The long journey of “Anthropolis” continues through the end of the year. The company will stage the final part, “Antigone/Epilogue,” directed by Jung Young-doo, at Myeongdong Theater from Dec. 2 to 26. Through Antigone, who defies the state’s orders to bury her dead brother in a Thebes reduced to ruins by war, the work addresses the clash between individual conscience and state power.