If you like Greek-style literature, you’re in for a treat. Oedipus the king is coming to campus-sort of.
The Lyceum Series will host “The Oedipus Cycles,” a condensed version of Sophocles’ plays “Oedipus the King,” “Oedipus at Colonus” and “Antigone ” as its first performance of 2005.
The show will hit the McComas Hall Theatre stage Tuesday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
“This is some to the origins of drama as we know it today,” Maridith Geuder, interim director of MSU University Relations, said.
Kell Smith, an MSU graduate student assisting with the Lyceum Series, said the company contacted the university interested in bringing their performers to MSU.
Smith added that the university’s performance arts council decided to get the National Players because they believed they could get a good reception with a theater group.
The show has been specially adapted for the National Players Co. of Washington, D.C., the nation’s longest running classical touring company, which is now in its 56th year. The troupe is comprised of young professionals in college drama programs. Already the group has performed in 10 foreign countries and 35 states.
“We try to represent some of the best opportunities for seeing high quality performance of drama,” Geuder said,
Geuder said that in the past the Lyceum Series has brought in Shakespearean plays, and last year the series invited a more contemporary drama dealing with the aftermath of 9/11.
The production, which is under the direction of George Washington University professor Alan Wade, emphasizes personal responsibility and its consequences in its characters.
“We are excited about the opportunity for students, faculty members, the campus community and larger community to see a classic drama performed by some of the top collegiate artists in the nation,” Geuder said.
Tickets can be purchased at the door and cost $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens upon request and $6 for children ages 3-12. Admission is free to MSU students with valid student identification.
For more information, call 325-4201 or visit the Lyceum Series Web site at www.msstate.edu/dept/lyceum/.