Sam Shepard’s “A Particle of Dread: Oedipus Variation” opened this weekend off-Broadway. Shepard has adapted the Greek tragedy of Oedipus in a modern-day tale, starring Irish actor Stephen Rea.
Shepard, one of America’s most popular avant-garde playwrights, successfully adapted the story of a man who mistakenly kills his father and marries his mother, transforming it into a noir thriller with surreal humor and touches of Grand Guignol.
The play, which originally premiered in Derry, Northern Ireland, is directed by Nancy Meckler and comprises of two stories. One is about a man and his wife who learn about another couple investigating a murder spree that took place in the Mojave desert, while the second one explores the story of Oedipus.
Shepard manages to draw parallels between the Greek tragedy’s violence and that of modern America, creating a play that is full of brutality, humor and fatality.
“The thing about Oedipus that is so incredible to me is that it doesn’t have a plot. There’s no story. It’s just a situation. It’s a predicament that the central character finds himself in. And the audience knows everything. He’s totally guilty but believes himself totally innocent,” Shepard said.
Shepard is an American playwright, actor, as well as a television and film director. He is the author of several short stories, essays and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play “Buried Child.” Shepard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in “The Right Stuff” (1983).
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