Oedipus Rex

Oedipus does not know who he is. Without knowing it he killed his father. Without knowing it he married his mother. The story follows that truth coming out slowly. The film is based on the play by Sophocles. The text used is the version by W. B. Yeats. The staging comes from the Stratford Festival in Canada. Tyrone Guthrie put that staging on film. The actors wear masks. Tanya Moiseiwitsch designed them. That was the practice of ancient Greek theatre itself. The stage is a single raised platform. The costumes are plain but coloured. It was shot in Toronto in April 1956. It opened on 6 January 1957. Douglas Campbell, Eleanor Stuart, Douglas Rain and William Hutt appear in the eighty seven minute film, a Canadian production Tyrone Guthrie finished in 1957.