Iokaste, the Tragic Woman Who Married Her Son, Takes Center Stage

" Iokaste" by the National Theater Company of Korea and "Flames" by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
Depicting Iokaste in ancient Thebes and on a modern battlefield

Two plays focusing on Iokaste, the mother of Oedipus, the tragic figure central to Greek mythology, are drawing attention as they take the stage one after another.

One is Iokaste, which the National Theater Company of Korea opened at Myeongdong Arts Theater on October 28 and will perform through November 21. The other is Flames, which the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture will present at Daehakro Theater Quad from November 14 through December 6.

Oedipus is the protagonist of Oedipus the King, a play by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. He is a man who ultimately cannot escape the fate foretold by an oracle: that he would kill his father and marry his mother. In Oedipus the King, Iokaste takes her own life after realizing that Oedipus, whom she married after losing her husband Laius, is her son. After learning the truth, Oedipus blinds himself and asks Creon, Iokaste's younger brother, to banish him from Thebes.

'Iokaste,' currently playing at Myeongdong Art Theater. National Theater Company of Korea

The National Theater Company of Korea's Iokaste is a work by contemporary German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig. Schimmelpfennig wrote Iokaste based on Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, one of the three great tragedians of ancient Greece alongside Sophocles, and The Phoenician Women by Euripides. Both plays deal with the power struggle and war between Oedipus' two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, over the throne of Thebes after Oedipus.

In particular, in Euripides' The Phoenician Women, Iokaste does not kill herself even after learning the shocking truth that she married her son. But another tragedy awaits her. She tries to mediate between her two sons, who are at odds over the throne after Oedipus, in an effort to prevent war. However, consumed by ambition, the brothers ultimately resort to armed conflict. Eteocles and Polynices kill each other, and Iokaste, who witnesses the deaths of both her sons, eventually takes her own life.

Schimmelpfennig reinterpreted the tragedy of the royal house of Thebes in Greek mythology for a modern audience, writing the five-part Anthropolis cycle. Iokaste is the fourth work in the series. Since last year, the National Theater Company of Korea has staged Prologue/Dionysus, Laius and Oedipus. Following Iokaste, it will present the final work, Antigone/Epilogue, in December 2026, bringing the five-part cycle to a close. Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Iokaste. She sets out on a journey with her blind father, supporting him as they go.

Flames at the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture's Daehakro Theater Quad is a work that seems to transpose the tragedy of Oedipus and Iokaste into a modern-day war.

Flames was written in 2003 by Wajdi Mouawad, a Canadian playwright born in Lebanon. Mouawad was born in Lebanon in 1968. When civil war broke out when he was eight, he left his homeland and settled in Canada after passing through France. Inspired by the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), Mouawad wrote four plays, of which Flames is the best known.

Flames, opening on the 14th at Daehangno Theater Quad. Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture

The play's protagonist, Nawal, brings to mind a modern-day Iokaste. Born into a Christian family, Nawal falls in love with Wahab, a young Muslim man from a refugee camp, and gives birth to their son, Nihad. Her family opposes their relationship because of their differences in religion and social status, kills Wahab, and takes the newborn Nihad from Nawal, sending him to an orphanage. Condemned as a disgrace to her family, Nawal leaves her family and hometown and heads to the city alone.

War later breaks out, and Nawal returns to her hometown to find Nihad, only to discover that the orphanage where she left him has been reduced to rubble by bombing. She searches the war zone for her son and eventually ends up in prison. Nawal is sexually assaulted by Abu Tarek, a torturer at the detention camp, and gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Jan and Simon.

The play follows Jan and Simon, after Nawal's death, as they set out in accordance with their mother's last wishes to find the father they thought was dead and the brother whose existence they had never known. After tracing their mother's past, they discover that Abu Tarek, the man who sexually assaulted Nawal, was in fact Nihad, the son Nawal had lost. Jan and Simon are thus confronted with the shocking truth that the father and brother they were searching for are the same person.

Mouawad's Flames was also adapted into a film. Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, best known for the Dune series, was deeply moved after seeing the play Flames in 2004 and decided to adapt it for the screen. He released a film of the same name in 2010, which was introduced in Korea under the title Incendies. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.