Lesley Manville on Broadway’s Oedipus: Don’t Film the Curtain Call, and Is Something Living in Our Souls?
Lesley Manville, the Olivier-winning actress celebrated on stage and screen, joined The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on December 15 to discuss her Broadway debut in Oedipus. The conversation veered from the famous Sophoclean tragedy to the unpredictability of audience behavior, including end-of-show moments that still surprise even a millennia-old tale.
What truly shocks Manville isn’t the play’s enduring twist, but a newer phenomenon: audience members recording curtain calls on their phones. She asks a provocative question in response, wondering aloud if something deeper is being captured or lost when moments of live performance are reduced to clips. The full interview offers more thoughts on both the production and this modern habit.
About the production: Robert Icke has reimagined Oedipus, situating the ancient tragedy within a contemporary election. This staging, which originated in London’s West End, transferred to Broadway’s Studio 54 and began previews on October 30 before opening on November 13. Critics have weighed in since the Broadway bow.
In the current Broadway iteration, Mark Strong returns to the title role with Manville as Jocasta, both bringing Olivier-nominated and -winning performances to the stage. The cast also features Samuel Brewer as Teiresias and Bhasker Patel as Corin, joined by Jordan Scowen as Eteocles and James Wilbraham as Polyneices. The lineup includes John Carroll Lynch as Creon, Teagle F. Bougere as Driver, Ani Mesa-Perez as Lichas, Olivia Reis as Antigone, and Anne Reid as Merope, with a larger ensemble rounding out the production.
Icke’s design team—who previously collaborated on the Dutch production at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and the Edinburgh International Festival—returns for Broadway. Scenic design is by Hildegard Bechtler, costumes by Wojciech Dziedzic, lighting by Natasha Chivers, sound by Tom Gibbons, and video by Tal Yarden. Casting is led by Julia Horan and Jim Carnahan, with David Lober as production stage manager.
The show is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, and Patrick Catullo, in association with Roundabout Theatre Company.
If you’d like to experience this modern retelling, tickets are available through Criterion Ticketing.
Contemporary question: Does updating a classic to fit a current political moment enhance or dilute its core themes? And as audiences increasingly film moments rather than simply watch, what happens to the immediacy and shared experience of live theater? Share your thoughts in the comments: Do you think modern audience habits improve engagement with the story, or do they risk distracting from the performance? Would you rather see Oedipus in its traditional form or in Icke’s election-night reimagining?
