The first rehearsal in the production of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, directed by Vito Taufer, was held today at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre.
In the tragedy of Oedipus, son of the Theban king Laius and Jocasta, who was foretold would kill his own father and marry his mother, the title role has been entrusted to Milan Marić and the rest of the cast includes Nataša Ninković, Srđan Timarov, Bojan Dimitrijević, Aleksandar Đurica, Miloš Samolov, Nebojša Ljubišić, Zoran Cvijanović and Joakim Tasić. The text was adapted for the stage by Vesna Radovanović and Marko Manojlović, set design by Lazar Boroža, costume design by Maria Marković Milojev, original score composed by Magnifico with Ljiljana Mrkić Popović in charge of speech coaching.
Sophocles, one of the three great tragedians of the classical Greek theatre (together with Aeschylus and Euripides) wrote over 130 plays of which only several survive: Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Women of Trachis, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. Among them, even in the ancient times, the tragedy of Oedipus Rex was the most famous and was described by Aristotle in his work Poetics as an example of the highest achievement in tragedy.
The Slovenian director Vito Taufer graduated in direction from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana in 1985. Since then, he has directed over 100 different productions, several operas and a feature film. He has worked with numerous theatres around the countries of former Yugoslava and became recipient of several prestigious theatre awards – among them several Borštnikov Awards, several Laurel Wreaths at the MESS festival in Sarajevo, Sterijino Pozorje awards, Marul Awards at the Marulićevi Dani festival, Prešern Awards….
In 1996, Taufer became the recipient of the Special Bitef Award for his production of Silence Silence Silence, produced by the Mladinsko Theatre in Ljubljana. Teufer has directed works by Gogol, Krleža, Ionesco, Shakespeare, Beckett, Sophocles, Chekhov…
The production of Oedipus Rex is scheduled to open in September.
