Oedipus the King (Dramatized)

Extremely atmospheric. The translation is unobstrusive, natural and unforced but still "classic". Close your eyes- you will feel like you are in Athens on a summer night 2500 years ago.

Excellent drama... perfect audio I would highly recommend this audio book to every one. I truly enjoyed this audio book.

I needed to quickly re-read this to help out a college student who works for me (I often use this as an excuse to re-read great works! lol) and this version is wonderful. Great voices and performances, easy to understand - as the work is a play - listening really brings it to life in a way that reading just cannot. BUT - the absolute best part of this production is the incredibly in depth discussion at the end - the discussion covered every question my worker had asked me to clarify and so much more.
I, myself, love a good brit accent - in truth....makes my knees go weak, but I know many Americans can't decipher them - so this is done by American actors - very good ones, so if that is a concern for you - you will enjoy this production.

"Count no may happy 'til he's dead...." Sophocles.

OK, it's old, I get that, and it had a lot of influence on later drama. There are plenty of good reasons to want to listen to this play which, like all the LA Theatreworks pieces, is extremely well produced; but one of them is not that it's actually an enjoyable listen. Drama has evolved somewhat over the last 2500 years. We expect things like character development and suspense. You're not going to get those here.

You already know the Oedipus story: he kills his father and marries his mother. This story is told through the framing device of Oedipus, several years later, having all this explained to him and then refusing to believe it, insisting on having various people brought to him to confirm that what we all know is true is true. The drama comes from Oedipus telling us over and over just how much he's suffering, moaning pitifully (though the modern take would be more ick than woe is me). Again, the actors do a great job, but it's still really boring.

Look, call me a Philistine if you'd like, I have nothing to prove to you. I'm a huge fan of live theater and strongly recommend most of the LA Theatreworks productions. Again, this is an important work for historical reasons, and if that's enough for you, by all means listen to it. But don't expect to be entertained because it's just not entertaining.