It’s All Greek to Me
In 2000, a theatre history professor in a graduate program in NYC asked her class, “Who believes in fate?” as opposed to free will. As you might imagine, we were beginning with the Greek classics. For the first time, in as long as she could remember, Fate won a resounding 30 to 2. As graduate students, the program was diverse in respect to both background and age. We swung from 22 to 50, hailing from Austin to Seoul and everywhere in between in either direction. So, why in that moment were we doubting our free will?
Perhaps we thought we were all destined to be actors in NYC, and that Fate had brought us together. In that case, it would also be true that Fate would have us return for our second year on September 5, 2001. A week later, one third of the class would depart NYC never to return.
I’ve often thought about Fate and the Greeks. The beauty of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is that Laius and Jocasta believed that they could exercise free will to avoid fate. After receiving a prophecy that he would be killed by his son, Laius instructed the child’s mother to kill the infant. Unable to do so, though the prophecy included that she would marry her son, Jocasta hands the child off to a servant to do it. Moved to pity, the servant hands the child off to a shepherd who in turn gives the infant to childless King Polybus who raises him as his own. Years later, after a road rage incident, Oedipus, as King Polybus’ son is known, kills Laius. As Oedipus continues on his journey, he bests a sphinx at riddles rescuing the city of Thebes and its citizens. As a reward, Thebes makes Oedipus king and marries him to their dowager queen, Jocasta. Prophecy fulfilled.
Whether that is a lesson in Fate over Free Will or “if you want something done right, do it yourself” could be argued. Laius died of delegation.
But I have not come here to discuss fate – well, not directly. This season has seen Oedipus on Broadway, Antigone, That Play I Read in High School Off-Broadway, The Other Side (an Antigone variation) Off-Broadway and Anywhere (inspired by Oedipus on the Road) Off-Off Broadway. While classics always make their way through the rotation (public domain certainly helps the budget), it has been 40 years since Rex reigned on Broadway, and longer still for Antigone. What have the Greeks taught us that is inspiring contemporary artists to reimagine their works?
This season’s Oedipus brought us to a contemporary election night, and a ruler with the best of intentions, but ignorant of his history. The Other Place is an uncomfortable family drama about crossed lines and power struggles. Antigone, That Play I Read in High School still has Antigone breaking the law, but she isn’t worried about burying her brother. Today, she refuses to apologise for having an abortion. Anywhere bridges the gap between Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus - the gap between Antigone the child who leaves Thebes to watch her father melt away and dissolve into a mist before she returns 20 years later after the death of her brothers.
The first thread I see across these productions this season is how horribly inept Creon is – from banal brother in-law to lecherous uncle to incompetent ruler. Known as a stubborn autocrat, we see him today as a buffoon. He is ill-equipped for the role he must assume. He is more focused on talking points than reality - caring more for the mob beyond the gate, Creon’s inflexibility creates drama and chaos. Certainly, we need no help drawing parallels to our current leadership.
The second is the idea of law vs. justice. Just because something is legal does that make it right? It’s the issue that Antigone faces in both modern and ancient versions. We’ve faced this paradox since the nation was founded. Slavery - immoral but legal; separate but equal, neither moral nor equal; rape in marriage, immoral but legal – all hurdles we’ve overcome over time. But there’s always another error to be corrected. It’s something we face every day in contemporary America from an unbalanced, inequitably penal system. We see it in every news reel from Minnesota. We’ve seen it in the construction of places like Alligator Alcatraz. Laws change when people refuse to be silenced.
Which brings us to the third thread - refusal to be silenced. In Oedipus, the prophecy being fulfilled does not trigger calamity. Oedipus and Jocasta ruled Thebes in peace and raised four children. In this season’s production, Oedipus’ mother is insisting on speaking to him. There is something she can no longer keep to herself since her son is about to win the top job. When the truth is discovered, the tragedy unfolds. In The Other Place, Creon is fearful of Antigone’s return and does his best to write her off as unstable and unwell. Her voice is a threat. Silencing or forcing Antigone to conform has been the battle for millennia.
And if there is any question, where Antigone learned to to fight for what she believes in, that would have been Anywhere. A child watches her family completely destroyed by circumstance- mother commits suicide, father blinds himself and is cast out as a beggar by her uncle, brothers raised by the same uncle only to be pitted against each other and fight to the death for their father's throne. People have been radicalized by less. As we witness atrocities around the world - hospitals bombed in Ukraine, the tragedy that unfolded on October 7, 2023, the destruction of Gaza, the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran, we are also witnessing the creation of thousands of zealots who will grow with their desire for vengeance. Antigone returning to Thebes and caring only for her own moral code is not surprising. In fact, teaching Antigone and not recognizing the years on the road is negligent. She was not turned all at once, but by time.
Pride is seen as the human foible that causes the downfall of all of these characters. But it is Antigone’s pride and honor that do not allow her to capitulate. This is pitted against Creon's pride which will not allow him to be moved to reason by his niece. Surely, as we look around the globe, we can recognize that nations would rather keep fighting, costing more lives and resources, than admit any type of failure. In the past, it may have been easy to write-off the Greeks and their plays by saying they were a simpler people who draped themselves in cloth and believed the world existed at the whim of multiple gods. They put superpowers over science. But when we modernize their plays in setting or language or circumstance, we can easily see that we are as vulnerable as they. We want to believe we're in control. We want to believe we're smarter - that we've learned something over the centuries. Yet reel after reel, people are fascinated by some new DNA revelation. We watch as states move toward the laws of the their God over the laws of society. We watch as people are stripped of their bodily-autonomy to appease a God they do not believe in. Have we really evolved or are we merely dressed in more complicated attire?
Yesterday, 8 million Americans took to the streets to protest injustice. No Kings - No Autocrats - No Tyrants. Athenians chose democracy after generations under a tyrant and his sons. Perhaps we were fated to our current circumstances. But it’s our free will that we must fight for. Our free will is what has allowed our democracy to evolve. That evolution canonized in laws and amendments has proved that we can overcome failures of past generations. Our 250 experiment has already exceeded the Athenians, but that doesn’t make it any less fragile. We must fight for our right to be heard, our right to have our vote counted now more than ever.
Sophocles was born under democracy, but it was only about 10 years old in 497 BC. 2500 years later, we’re still trying to get democracy right. Shakespeare wrote about his queen’s direct ancestors with adoration while painting her familial rivals as monsters. Brecht wrote about America and England when he could not write about Germany. And so Sophocles wrote of Thebes as a shadow city to Athens to express themes of fate vs. free will, divine law and civic duty. By extension, we restage the Greeks to remind us about politics vs. leadership, law vs. justice, going-with-the-flow vs. standing-against-the-tide.The Ancient Greeks have taught us about government, comedy and tragedy for hundreds of years. This season has reminded us just how valuable and timeless those lessons are.
Editorial by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on May 11, 2026. All rights reserved.