What is the relevance of Greek tragedy for today’s audience?
The play was written in 415BC after a time of plague and drought in Athens. So when the play opens with Oedipus searching for an end to the drought – in vain- the audience would then immediately recognise the situation, and indeed relate to it. The play was a political work, and today thousands of years later, the human condition has not changed. We still have leaders of powerful countries believing that their policies are always right, ruling with an arrogance and paranoia that leads them to attack and attempt to crush anything that does not fall in line with their doctrine. The play is in some ways about the corruption of power over the human condition. Oedipus after saving Thebes begins to believe he was sent by God and that he has the right to rule and thus attacks people who have helped him. Once he has power he does not want to relish it. Many of today’s leaders suffer the same faults. The reason why these plays will always be relevant is because even if we have developed (techno
