30 Days of NYMF Day 3: Oedipus for Kids

SOPHOCLES: Hello everybody, and welcome to "Sophocles and Plato: Two Greek Thumbs". I am your host, the playwright Sophocles, and beside me is my longtime theatre-reviewing companion, Plato.

PLATO: What?

SOPHOCLES: Excellent. For today's program, we'll be reviewing the NYMF show, Oedipus for Kids!, touted as a "new musical gone horribly, horribly wrong". Songs include "A Little Complex" and "My Lover Is My Husband Is My Son". Plato, what did you think?

PLATO: Hated it.

SOPHOCLES: You hated it?

PLATO: Every minute of it. Plato Junior cried in the Volvo the whole way home.

SOPHOCLES: Um...

PLATO: How could you do Oedipus for children? That's disgusting.

SOPHOCLES: You're not supposed to bring your kids to it, Plato. The title is a joke.

PLATO: If that's true, then how long can they milk the fact that Oedipus isn't an appropriate children's story? That's the joke. It's in the title. I can go home now.

SOPHOCLES: No... You see, it's a theatrical troupe, whose mission is to bring the classics to children, and they're presenting Oedipus as this week's production. You also get to watch the backstage scenes--

PLATO: Yes, the one girl, she kept breaking out of her character to complain to the artistic director guy about doing that "Plague Song" in front of the cancer ward kids. People with professionalism don't argue and make out onstage during intermission.

SOPHOCLES: That wasn't really "onstage".

PLATO: Then tell me, how did I see it?

SOPHOCLES: Because the show's about three performers and the relationships they have while trying to create this show, a play within a play.

PLATO: Well, I thought both plays were pretty insulting. Ever since my son found out what Oedipus did to his Mommy and Daddy, he's been looking at my wife funny.

SOPHOCLES: Now that's why I hated the play.

PLATO: You did?

SOPHOCLES: Very few know the true details of the Oedipal Complex, of man's desire to kill his father and marry his mother. It needs to be taught, but not as a joke.

PLATO: You didn't like it because it didn't take Oedipal love seriously?

SOPHOCLES: How many dramatic works today deal with the attractiveness of an older woman, the inherent appeal of one's mother?

PLATO: American Pie.

SOPHOCLES: Doesn't count.

PLATO: So in summation, we both didn't like Oedipus for Kids! very much, did we.

SOPHOCLES: Well, it wasn't a total loss. I loved watching the two blind guys dance.

PLATO: Ah true! Blind dancing guys are funny. I'm just a sucker for the way they tap their canes! Tee-hee!

SOPHOCLES: Did you just say "tee-hee"?

PLATO: Oedipus for Kids! will be playing for six performances at the Sage Theatre, 711 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th, from September 12th through September 25th.

SOPHOCLES: Tickets now onsale. For more information, visit www.nymf.org or www.oedipusforkids.com.

PLATO: Until next time, this is "Sophocles and Plato: Two Greek Thumbs", not making any reference to the fact that we died thousands of years ago. Goodbye!