An Oedipus Not Complex: A Review of “The Gospel at Colonus” at Court Theatre

Kelvin Roston Jr, Isaac Ray, Jerica Exum, Jessica Brooke Seals, Eric A. Lewis in “The Gospel at Colonus” at Court Theatre/Photo: Michael Brosilow

Court Theatre continues their series of plays by Sophocles with “The Gospel at Colonus,” which depicts the last days of Oedipus reimagined as an African American Pentecostal church service. The work is based on the play “Oedipus at Colonus,” the last written by Sophocles before his death in 406BC, adapted for the stage by avant-garde playwright Lee Breuer and composer Bob Telson and ran for sixty-one performances on Broadway in 1988.

Court’s version is directed by Mark J.P. Hood and Charles Newell, who have characters breaking the fourth wall both by speaking directly to the audience in call-and-response and the threshold of the stage, launching characters up and down the aisles in the audience. The scenic design by John Culbert resembles the bare wood frame of a large two-story mansion.

Oedipus (Kelvin Roston Jr.), blind and in exile, returns with his daughter to the land of his birth, the town Colonus near Athens. They are met by a chorus of villagers dressed in white robes with gold stripes, who sing in a wide range of gospel music styles. The villagers are hesitant until the King of Athens, Theseus (Mark Spates Smith), assuages his constituency in the manner of a preacher addressing his parishioners. They are joined by Oedipus’ other daughter, Ismene (Ariana Burks), and even his great sin of incest with his mother, making his children both his daughters and his sisters, is forgiven by the townsfolk.

But there are those who can’t seem to let Oedipus rest. King Creon (Timothy Edward Kane) of Thebes beckons Oedipus to return with him, that they will hash out this whole sinning business together (yeah, right!); likewise, Oedipus’ non-incestual son, Polyneices (Kai A. Ealy), beckons his father to lift the curse which he bestowed upon him just before his exile. Oedipus, now spiritually forgiven, is given the power of the curse of God, which keeps his antagonists at bay, allowing him to die in peace and ascend into heaven.

Mark Spates Smith and company of “The Gospel at Colonus”/Photo: Michael Brosilow

The characters display less variety in the spoken prose than in the music. There is more singing than speaking, with each cast member displaying tremendous vocal power and range through long, melismatic strings of sung notes. When speaking, each character has the cadence of a Pentecostal preacher, emphasizing every vowel by raising then lowering their voices in the middle of words. All it takes is a simple “praise G-AW-d” jammed into the middle of a sentence to get the audience into an uproar of approval, a tactic that is used in abundance.

Although there is no mention of any specific god or gods, the symbolism in costuming and lyrics pertain to the three major Abrahamic-based religions: Oedipus, a nomadic wanderer wearing white robes and a round kufi atop his head, embodies Judaism, Christianity and Islam simultaneously. But this doesn’t stop audience members from raising both hands in the air and yelling “Yes, Jesus!” regardless of what is happening on stage. One gets the impression that the cast could sing the names and numbers out of the phone book in the same style and receive as enthusiastic of a response.

In the end, all pretenses of an ostensible Christian leaning are abandoned and culminates with a full-throated proselytization of the grandeur of God and heaven, a simple equation that gets the intended result. “Gospel at Colonus” knows its target audience and gives them what they want: a spectacular gospel music show whose true star is never seen onstage yet remains ubiquitously present.

“The Gospel at Colonus” at Court Theatre, 5535 South Ellis. Tickets are $23.50-$67.50, courttheatre.org, (773)753-4472. Through June 18.