The Oedipus Project presents acclaimed actors reading scenes from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King on Zoom as a catalyst for powerful, constructive, global conversations about climate change, ecological disaster, and environmental justice. Sophocles’ ancient play, first performed in 429 BC, just after a plague that killed nearly one-third of the Athenian population, is a story of arrogant leadership, ignored prophecy, intergenerational curses, willful blindness, and a pestilence and ecological collapse that ravages the archaic city of Thebes. Seen through this lens, Oedipus the King appears to have been a powerful tool for helping Athenians communalize trauma and loss, while interrogating their own complicit role in the suffering, not just of those around them but of generations to come.
This free, live, public event was presented on April 27th, 2021 as part of the Nobel Prize Summit: Our Planet, Our Future, hosted by the Nobel Foundation and organized by the U. S. National Academy of Sciences in partnership with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the Stockholm Resilience Centre/Beijer Institute.
Featuring performances by Bill Murray, Corey Hawkins, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Frankie Faison, David Strathairn, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Jumaane Williams, and a Chorus of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, including Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Harold Varmus.
Panelists:
Vanessa Nakate: Climate Activist, Uganda
DJ Saravese: Poet
Laura Verónica Muñoz: Climate Activist, Colombia
Julialynne Walker, Urban Grower
Tim Norris: Farmer
Translated, directed, and facilitated by Bryan Doerries
Produced by Marjolaine Goldsmith
