SYNOPSIS
A speaker narrates each episode of the story before it happens. He warns us we will watch Oedipus falling into a trap waiting for him since his birth.
The city of Thebes is afflicted by plague. In despair, the inhabitants turn to their king, Oedipus, who promises help. His ambitious brother-in-law, Creon, has learned from the oracle that the plague has been sent because the murderer of the previous king, Laius, is still living in the city.
Oedipus vows to find this man. He consults with the blind Tiresias who unwillingly tells him: "The murderer of the king is a king." Jocasta, the widow of Laius and now the wife of Oedipus, tells her husband that Laius met his death 12 years before at a crossroads. Oedipus realizes he himself is the murderer.
News arrives of the death of Oedipus’s supposed father, Polybus, and the king discovers that he was adopted after being found abandoned as a baby on Mount Cithaeron. Hearing this, Jocasta realizes that Oedipus, her husband and the murderer of her former husband, is their long-lost son.
Jocasta kills herself. Taking her pin of gold, Oedipus puts out his own eyes. Blinded, he reappears once more in front of the citizens, before turning away and leaving Thebes forever.
