Why is Sophocles storming the West End? Because in our extreme times, his plays say the unsayable | Charlotte Higgins

The Greek tragedies ask unpalatable questions. That is why they’re enjoying a revival in 2025

West End theatre is in a weird and unsettling place. It feels as though something that might once have been good and exciting is coming to an end. Many of the big shows, the ones that might have posters on the tube, are TV or film adaptations, like The Devil Wears Prada. Or familiar staples, like Mamma Mia!. Or ones with star casting, like the much-derided The Tempest with Sigourney Weaver. Which is not to say all of these shows are bad, just that there is a kind of stasis. Nervous producers are chasing post-Covid, theatre-shy audiences at a time when the pipeline of new material flowing in from the increasingly impoverished subsidised theatre world is running dry.

In this mix, though, there is something surprising: a lot of Sophocles. One version of his play Oedipus the King, starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, has just finished. Another has just opened at the Old Vic, starring Rami Malek and Indira Varma. At the same time, Sophocles’ much less often performed Elektra is showing in the West End, starring Brie Larson (known to many as Captain Marvel in the movie franchise).

Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian’s chief culture writer

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