Oedipus Md

King Oedipus is a play in which the protagonist, attempts to find the cause of a sickness affecting the city of Thebes. The process through which Oedipus uncovers the details of the disease directly parallels the process used by the television show House M.D, in which Dr. House unravels complex mysteries surrounding a patient’s sickness. Dr. House’s method of uncovering information is extremely unorthodox--he threatens and manipulates anyone who can help him, often becoming obsessed with solving the medical puzzle. Oedipus follows in the same direction, becoming hell bent on finding the origin of the sickness, assaulting those who withhold information from him and dismissing anyone who opposes him. The mental and physical likeness of the two characters was instrumental in the decision of depicting Oedipus as Dr. House. Scripting was essential in making the theme of the rendition obvious to the audience, as it established the medical tone, aided each actor’s portrayal of his or her character and helped determine the look of the play.

The scripting of the play was used to mimic the tone of House M.D. The initial script served as a rough outline for the entire production and thus established the overall tone of the play. The first step was to locate any lines dealing with the issue of sickness and emphasise the scenes in which the cause of the sickness is discussed. As a result, the opening lines pertained to the sickness and helped establish the medical theme: “What is the meaning of these prayers for the healing of pain?” (Sophocles 25). It was also necessary to sustain the consistency of the medical references and eliminate irrelevant dialogue. To achieve this characters had to written out of the script. The first example of this is the Priest, who was replaced by Creon to create a scene of fast paced dialogue between Oedipus and Creon, again mimicking House M.D’s technique of discussing an illness. By selectively choosing lines, Oedipus’ egotistical...