Oedipus in Seattle is an auto-theater mash up of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and the 1993 rom-com Sleepless in Seattle. In this unconventional adaptation, two different actors take the stage each night without having rehearsed or read the script. Instructions from a voice in their headphones will guide them through the piece as they assume the roles of Oedipus, Jocasta, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, with the casting decided by random chance.
Oedipus in Seattle is a show about destiny, and the uncertainty of living a life without one. From ancient Greece tragedies to modern romantic comedies, humans have always created stories about destiny, and characters who will end up winning or losing no matter how hard they try to escape their fate. Meanwhile, the actors in this piece will function more like we all do in real life- without a script, stumbling from one task to the next, trying and mostly failing to understand what it all means.
Script by Savannah Reich, and sound design and an original score by sound artist Douglas Vento.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
The show premiered at the 2022 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, where it won an overall “Fringie” Audience Choice Award. We were invited to reprise it at the December Miniball Festival at Christ Church Neighborhood House, where it starred local audience favorites Suli Holum, Trey Lyford, Brandon J Pierce and Anthony Martinez-Briggs.
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Theater Horizon produced “Oedipus in Seattle” as their 2025/26 season opener, starring many Philadelphia and Norristown luminaries including Lindsay Smiling & Liz Filios, Justin Jain & Jacinta Yelland, and Lee Minora & Jered McLenigan.
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The show is available for licensing as a show-in-a-box; any theater interested in putting on a production can arrange to rent the QLab files, all needed audio equipment, and major props. Just add actors (with no rehearsal) and you’re ready to go!
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“Beyond the effect of watching an unrehearsed play, at a glance the show’s mashup of source material was baffling. The playwright incorporates elements of both Oedipus Rex and Sleepless In Seattle. At first I wondered why she would juxtapose these two stories. They seem so different, but ultimately both of them feature characters who are bound by fate. By the end of the show, Reich’s creation makes sense.”
-David Block, Broad Street Review.
Over the course of a single hour, “Oedipus in Seattle” turns a performance bursting with playful confusion into a moving philosophical experience about fate and control. It takes real courage to mash up Greek tragedy and rom-com — and the team behind “Oedipus in Seattle” has it… As someone who has gone to live performances from small plays in hidden-away theatres to Broadway shows, the synergy they managed to create between the audience and themselves was unlike anything I’d seen in a play. Just as they didn’t know where the performance would go, we, the audience, didn’t either. In the black box, their confusion became ours — and the energy they created was electric.
-Reem Benhaddouch, Swarthmore Phoenix.
