Nick Ortega and Olga Sanchez in Miracle Theatre Group’s «Oedipus el Rey» (Photo by Russell J. Young)

Check out this review of Oedipus el Rey from Carol Wells of The Oregonian …

Alive with elemental passion and brutality, the Miracle Theatre Group’s production of playwright Luis Alfaro’s brilliant «Oedipus el Rey» gives director Elizabeth Huffman and her cast a chance to demonstrate they can rise to the level of even this most challenging work.

The strict social code of the ancient Greek society of Sophocles’ original Oedipus play transfers easily to this slice of present-day California Chicano culture, where neighborhoods are ruled by powerful gangs who function as de facto royalty.

The story follows the ambitious rise of a modern-day Oedipus. Played by a flawlessly centered Nick Ortega, who has such a command of his onstage space he seems at times to be  dancing as much as acting, his character aspires to be not just a king, but a god. Such arrogance, naturally, does not go unpunished.

The original Oedipus play, written around four centuries before Christ, naturally has an ancient feel, and Alfaro’s modern version, and the Miracle production, replicate that feel. While actors José E. González, Marco Garcia Ballaré, and Osvaldo «Ozzie» González are effective in their individual roles, they are all the more powerful when they join with Anthony Green, Rick Huddle, and Enrique E. Andrade to form the chorus. Then they become the primal group of men who represent strength, who protect the tribe, who enforce the rules.

The lighting (designed by Kristeen Willis Crosser) and sound (by designer and composer Sharath Patel) continue the primitive, abrupt rhythm: one moment we are in a mythic and dark place as Oedipus, in fear for his life, is ordered to answer the riddle of the Sphinx (there are three of them, wearing masks from a nightmare); an instant later the light is clean and bright and the sprightly pop song «Chapel of Love» is heard.

The original play opens upon an Oedipus who has already done the work of killing his father and marrying his mother. It’s as if, even in that ancient civilization, the violation of these fundamental taboos was too awful to entertain, except as memory.

Undaunted, Alfaro has forged into this territory. He makes us looks as Oedipus beats his father to death and, even more horrifyingly, as he has sex with his mother, Jocasta. It doesn’t help that Olga Sanchez plays her with a sensual yearning and sorrow that lightens after she couples with her son. The playwright constantly winks at us with the fact that we in the audience know the truth, unlike the characters onstage. «All the empty spaces inside of me, it’s as if they were always yours,» says Jocasta, as her son’s lover. The effect on the audience is wicked. There is pleasure in holding critical and secret information. We share in the taboo because we know too much, and we haven’t looked away.

«Oedipus el Rey» is presented in English with some Spanish. The play contains adult situations.