The Arab Oedipus: Four Plays

Edited by Marvin Carlson

An awareness of the rich tradition of modern Arabic theatre has only recently begun to be felt by the Western theatre community, and we hope that this collection will contribute to that awareness, not only because of the importance of the dramatists represented, but because of the fascination of seeing a variety of Arabic perspectives on one of the central dramas of the European canon. These varied Arabic explorations of Oedipus range in tonality from dark fatalism to rollicking farce and in time from ancient Greek and Egyptian Thebes to a contemporary computer laboratory, where a super-computer replaces the Delphic oracle as the source of the fatal prophecy.

This collection includes:
King Oedipus by Tawfiq al-Hakim
The Tragedy of Oedipus by Ali Ahmad Bakathir
The Comedy of Oedipus by Ali Salim
Oedipus by Walid Ikhlasi