White chairs mark the center of the stage, with actors clad in complementary white and gray. The chairs are set up in a meandering line all across the room; at the end of that line, a separate stage with a trio of musicians. A choir stands behind them, white veils covering their faces, their ghost-like appearance eerie and mysterious. On either side of the chairs sits the audience, watching the spectacle from both angles. This is the rather unusual set-up at the Souterrain at the Nationale Opera en Ballet in Amsterdam for the three performances of Rex Revisited, developed by Gregory Caers (Director) and Bas Gaakeer (Composer).

The 8th edition of The Opera Forward Festival (OFF) was held from March 8 to March 17 2024 at the Nationale Opera en Ballet, spanning various performances such as The Four Note Opera, The Shell Trial, Oedipus Rex / Antigone, and Rex Revisited. It also hosted talks, for example on cultural institutions taking sides in polarizing societal matters, Kunst voor Klimaat, and ethics in art sponsorship.

Rex Revisited starts with the actors seated on the chairs, staring at small, old television screens on the floor. When the choir enters, the actors point to them—they’re the souls of the deceased, those who died from the plague in Oedipus’s time. In a long line, the ghost-like figures walk on either side of the actors before finding their way onto the stage behind the other musicians. Just like in Old Greek theater, the choir stands separate from the actors, who remain the focal point of the stage.

The actors portray the story of Oedipus and Jocasta in an inventive fashion, with hectic movements and a modernity that bring to light the urgency and direness of the situation. The climactic dialogue between the actors and the choir demands undivided attention, and the seriousness of Oedipus’s predicament is perceptible in the whole room.

This modern adaptation of the Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex evokes pity and sympathy for the titular character, who, despite his best attempts at escaping the prophecy of Delphi, cannot avoid his fate. The thousand-year-old story of how he killed his biological father and married his mother continues to shock the audience even today. The eight actors playing Oedipus—one for each of the eight scenes, with the other seven lip-syncing along—portray his vanity and pride but also his fear. All other actors—Jocasta, Tiresias, Creon, an unnamed woman, and unnamed citizens—were given plenty of opportunities to showcase their skills alongside their team.

Oedipus Rex / Antigone and Rex Revisited are deeply intertwined. The former, which greatly inspired the latter, takes place on the main stage and hosts one narrator, as well as opera singers and dancers alike. Through the musical and narrative creation of Igor Stravinsky, the first half of Oedipus Rex / Antigone portrays the core of Oedipus’s story, while Samy Moussa’s second half highlights the story of Antigone, Oedipus’ sister and daughter. Rex Revisited removes the original tragedy from its initial setting and contextualizes it in the modern world—a world where pandemics persist, much like in Oedipus’s time. Caers includes politics from the time at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, alluding to fake news and conspiracy theories.

The performers of Rex Revisited are students from MBO Theaterschool Rotterdam, the choir of the Vrije Universiteit, Bas Gaakeer (guitar), Sinan Arat (ney), and Ezgi Elkırmış (percussion). Gerbrand Bos contributed as the designer, and Sacha Van der Mast worked as the dramaturge. Under the guidance of director Gregory Caers, the students brought Oedipus’s story back to life. All these people worked together in marvelous collaboration to give three outstanding performances of this novel and unique opera and theater production.

It is true that history repeats itself; Caers infuses commentary on populist politics in his adaptation of the Oedipus story. To achieve this effect, Caers explains that he fuses “text, movement, music and song into one performance” for the first time since joining OFF. On top of that, Caers stated that it only takes one single ego to have a negative impact on an entire nation’s fate, relating Oedipus’ actions to modern-day politicians and their speeches regarding real-life events, specifically former U.S. President Trump, a reference to whose actions during the Covid-19 pandemic is made.

Bas Gaakeer made sure to reflect Caers’s vision of modernizing Oedipus’s story and directly relate it to Trump whilst staying true to the roots of the tragedy. To embrace the traditional flair of ancient Greek tragedy, Gaakeer “went back to the Mediterranean, where Sophocles wrote his Oedipus Rex.” In Serva Nos, Ego Senem, Meth’imon and Oniromàndis, Gaakeer returned to the Byzantine choral tradition by employing dark sounds with voices, low and sustained notes, and liturgical texts taken directly from Sophocles’s original text in ancient Greek and their Latin translation.

To modernize the story, however, the texts are spoken in a mix of Dutch and English, and the songs are sung both in English and the original Greek and Latin. In his music, Gaakeer quoted Trump’s speech on recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A part towards the end of the statement is directly quoted in the song Ego Senem: “It is time for the many who desire peace to expel the extremists from their midst. It is time for all civilized nations, and people, to respond to disagreement with reasoned debate—not violence.”

Festivals such as OFF are a wonderful tool to highlight the art of opera to both young and old and to give rise to new performers who appreciate the performing arts as much as people love watching them. Specifically, Rex Revisited did an incredible job tying the Ancient Greek tragedy to the modern context that we live in, elucidating just how relevant history and mythology still are and how we can enjoy and learn from them at the same time.