Laius

Sophocles, the Greek Dramatist, who lived from 497-406 BC, was one of the great dramatists of all time and his tragedy, Oedipus Rex among the greatest of plays ever written but Sophocles had the benefit of another play, Laius, now long-lost, based on the same mythic story, by the Greek dramatist Aeschylus (525-456 BC). John Wright has now recreated the story of Laius, the king of Thebes, and the father of Oedipus in the form and style of Shakespearian drama and thus written mainly in blank verse, sometimes using rhyming couplets to end scenes. The only real liberty taken with the original narrative is with the location of Laius’ death, killed, unbeknownst, by his own son, Oedipus in fulfilment of the prophesy of the Oracle of Delphi that Laius would die by his son’s hands and that Oedipus would go on to marry his own mother.