BUREAU OF WORKS_
The Substation
1 Market St, Newport VIC 3015
Our office is open Mon–Thurs
Ellis Parrinder
A comic bloodbath about a fate that none of us can escape. Oedipus Schmoedipus is a joyful, dark, irreverent, hilarious and confronting performance about death: real death, fake death, and death as portrayed in the world’s great theatre classics. Resurrecting again and again after multiple murders and suicides, Mish Grigor and Shelly Lauman pile up classic dramatic death scenes into an accessible, fun-filled, engaging spectacle of glee-ridden blood and gore in an irreverent work from provocative Australian collective post (Zoë Coombs Marr, Mish Grigor & Natalie Rose). For Asia TOPA 2020, productions of the work in English and Cantonese (featuring ManMan Kwok and Man Sui Hing) are performed over two weeks. For each show’s mammoth bloodbath, a cast of 25 local volunteers is invited to join in the comic lament and slaughter. Straddling live art, theatre and contemporary performance, Oedipus Schmoedipus has had audiences around the world in stitches and in tears. It’s a democratic theatrical extravaganza 2,500 years in the making. Local volunteer call-outs begin in December 2019. Refer to the Asia TOPA website for details.
Oedipus Schmoedipus was originally produced by Belvoir, post & Intimate Spectacle. This production was cocommissioned by Asia TOPA with Hong Kong Repertory Theatre & Freespace West Kowloon and produced by Bureau of Works. It has been supported by Sidney Myer Fund, Playking Foundation, Arts Centre Melbourne and University of Melbourne.
Presented as part of AsiaTOPA 2020
An Arts Centre Melbourne, University of Melbourne and Union House Theatre presentation
Cantonese Language Production:
Co-commissioned by Asia TOPA with Hong Kong Repertory Theatre 香港話劇團 and Freespace, West Kowloon 西九文化區自由空間
Originally co-produced by Intimate Spectacle
Cantonese Translation & Adaptation Pat To Yan 甄拔濤
Cast ManMan Kwok 郭靜雯, MAN Sui Hing 文瑞興 & 25 local volunteers per show
Assistant Director AU Ting Fai 邱廷輝
English Language Production:
Original Composer & Sound Designer James Brown
Original Lighting Designer Matthew Marshall & Ross Graham
Original Fight Director Scott Witt
Cast Mish Grigor, Shelly Lauman & 25 local volunteers per show
Dramaturg Anne-Louise Sarks
IN ENGLISH: 18 – 21 March 2020
IN CANTONESE: 25 – 28 March 2020
Wednesday – Saturday 7:30PM
Union House Theatre,
University of Melbourne