"Oedipus El Rey" - by Luis Alfaro - Huntington Theatre Company (Boston, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: Javier David center with members of the CAST of Luis Alfaro's "OEDIPUS EL REY" presented by Huntington Theatre Company at the BCA/Calderwood, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. through June 14, 2026. Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
"He pulls the strings so tight, this God... how can we move when we're trapped?”
- ("Jocasta") / Luis Alfaro
Huntington Theatre Company
Presents Luis Alfaro's
"OEDIPUS EL REY"
Written by Luis Alfaro
Original Music by Jake Rodriguez
Directed by Loretta Greco
Cast Includes: Juan Arturo as “Oedipus," Gabe Martínez as “Laius,” Melisa Soledad Pereyra as “Jocasta,” Jaime José Hernández as “Creon,” Victor Almanzar as “Tiresias,” Javier David as “El Sobador.”
Understudies: Jared Nobrega, Armando Rivera, Erik Manuel Robles, Rebekah Rae Robles.
Additional Creative Team:
Scenic and Projections Design - Hana S. Kim; Costume Design - Alex Jaeger; Lighting Design - Reza Behjat; Sound Design - Jake Rodriguez; Assistant Director - Amelia Rose Estrada; Dramaturg – Sonia Fernandez; Fight Director and Intimacy Coach – Jesse Hinson; Voice and Dialect Coach - Adi Cabral; Production Stage Manager - Emily F. McMullen; Stage Manager - Ross Gray; NY Casting - Alaine Alldaffer and Lisa Donadio; Boston Casting - Brett Duffy.
Performances:
May 7, 2026 through June 14, 2026
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
Roberts Theatre/Calderwood, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. 02116
TICKETS:
Available online at huntingtontheatre.org, by phone at 617-266-0800 or in person at THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston.
BUY TICKETS
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
(Warning: The following review contains spoilers)
Huntington Theatre Company continues its 2025-2026 season with a refreshing new take on possibly the world’s oldest soap opera with "OEDIPUS EL REY" - a re-imagining of the ancient epic Sophocles’ Greek tragedy now playing in Boston with a Latin twist.
The main “talking points” of Sophocles’ incestuous drama "OEDIPUS REX" persists but there is far more to the ancient tale that is brought to forefront in the exhilarating new Huntington Theatre adaptation written by Luis Alfaro.
Performed in both English and Spanish, the vibrant "OEDIPUS EL REY" showcases an imaginative, immersive Huntington set design, creative integration of production elements and phenomenal performances.
As directed by Huntington's Artistic Director Loretta Greco, the production is a stunning visual piece which, through its depiction of an environment supposedly highlighting the very worst in us, therein lies something of equal and exquisite beauty.
The Alfaro script brilliantly presents a world in which one’s obsession for creating their own destiny tends to work against their ultimate fate (by the way - “fate” is a word that is going to come up here quite a bit).
(Photo: Victor Almanzar, Javier David, Juan Arturo and Gabe Martínez in a moment from Luis Alfaro's "OEDIPUS EL REY" presented by Huntington Theatre Company at the BCA/Calderwood, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. through June 14, 2026. Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin)
Told in a masterful “Greek Chorus” approach, much of Alfaro’s "OEDIPUS EL REY" unfolds in a contemporary South Central Los Angeles prison, with most of the Huntington Theatre action faithfully following the original Sophocles’ story.
Outside the prison in a Pico-Union neighborhood, OEDIPUS' father Laius (Gabe Martínez) is a gang leader who learns about a prophecy in which he is murdered by his son.
Martínez gives a deeply focused performance as Laius who, fearing his ultimate fate, orders his child, his only son, OEDIPUS (Juan Arturo), be murdered.
As depicted in Alfaro’s story, OEDIPUS' mother, Jocasta (Melisa Soledad Pereyra), has been given more layers and is shown to be more worldly wise if not empowered given the neighborhood environment just outside the prison walls.
In an intense, commanding performance by Pereyra, Jocasta is seen more than as simply a grieving mother who discovers later how her son was ordered executed by her husband.
She knows she will never escape her life but persists, doing her best to cope with the realization of how things that will never change.
(Photo: Juan Arturo as “Oedipus" with Melisa Soledad Pereyra as “Jocasta” in a scene from Luis Alfaro's "OEDIPUS EL REY" presented by Huntington Theatre Company at the BCA/Calderwood, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. through June 14, 2026. Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin)
After Jocasta gives birth Laius commands his friend, Tiresias (Victor Almanzar), to kill the child, seemingly showing no guilt nor remorse for his desperate heinous act of self-preservation.
However, fate intercedes and OEDIPUS escapes death.
Unable to comply as instructed by Laius, Tiresias, as skillfully and sensitively portrayed by Almanzar, instead raises OEDIPUS as his own son, albeit mostly from behind prison walls.
Later, a growing OEDIPUS manipulates the legal system in such a way as to wind up in the same prison as Tiresias.
There are certain plot points which happen rapidly (perhaps too rapidly at certain moments such as a later notorious seduction scene between - ahem - "relatives") but it is a minor flaw in an otherwise flawless production.
Using the prison as its primary setting, the play briefly leans into the subject of immigration detention before returning to the principal Sophocles’ plot.
(Photo: Victor Almanzar as “Tiresias” in a scene from Luis Alfaro's "OEDIPUS EL REY" presented by Huntington Theatre Company at the BCA/Calderwood, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. through June 14, 2026. Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin)
Juan Arturo offers up a fierce, ruthless and unapologetic OEDIPUS who may have been raised by a different man but definitely follows in his biological father’s footsteps…in more ways that one…
The primary - again, ahem - “Biblical” plot points of the epic saga have not been altered by Alfaro’s adaptation – they have simply been made more contemporary, upbeat and even delightfully hilarious at times.
Given today’s more sophisticated audiences, with no doubt some members acquainted with infinitely varied 21st Century “PornHub approaches” to the topic of “oedipal incest” (or so I've heard), some of the lines uttered speak to what many in the audience might already be thinking as the most defining tale of the subject unfolds.
Some of those lines come from another standout performance by Jaime José Hernández as Jocasta ‘s brother “Creon,” an aspiring gangster who works for Laius.
Creon feels threatened by the arrival of his old prison friend OEDIPUS with a reunion that feels half unexpected, half preordained.
Rounding out the Huntington Theatre Company cast is Javier David as “El Sobador,” an old neighborhood healer who early in the story tends to a very pregnant Jocasta.
From the Alfaro text, David shows us the spiritual El Sobador as one who is perceived by those around him as a blessed holy man for how he interprets the word of God.
El Sobador reveals to Laius a fate no one cannot alter while also seemingly mourns for a child not yet brought into this world but which fate has doomed before it is born.
(Photo: Javier David center with members of the CAST of Luis Alfaro's "OEDIPUS EL REY" presented by Huntington Theatre Company at the BCA/Calderwood, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. through June 14, 2026. Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin)
While Huntington actors Arturo and Pereyra remain constant as OEDIPUS and Jocasta (with Pereyra assuming just one other character), the other members of the Greek Chorus convey most of the tale and this is where Alfaro’s story truly excels and is masterfully staged by Greco.
Breaking the fourth wall occasionally, there is even a literal ten-minute celebratory party approximately 90 minutes into the show that the audience can enjoy before the tale returns to its more darkened roots and inevitable conclusion.
Thankfully so, too, because the above truly elevates this story to a new, contemporary level, keeping it relevant while re-iterating a timeless cautionary tale of how “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” especially when one tries to cheat destiny.
Again, for an epic tragedy, the humor here is nearly relentless in this re-telling, mostly thanks to the use of the Greek Chorus and how adeptly these versatile actors transition to assume their varied characters throughout the show.
(Photo: Javier David in a moment from Luis Alfaro's "OEDIPUS EL REY" presented by Huntington Theatre Company at the BCA/Calderwood, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. through June 14, 2026. Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin)
Soon after his release from prison, OEDIPUS tries to become not only his own man but a ruler of others as in "OEDIPUS EL REY" (i.e. "OEDIPUS THE KING") soon discovering he is traveling down a high-speed lane on life’s freeway of fate (there’s that word again) and it is a freeway from which there are no off-ramps.
"OEDIPUS EL REY" continues at Huntington Theatre through June 14th, 2026 and, as Jocasta eloquently points out in her own way, when it comes to this earthly puppet show of destiny, it is not we that pull the strings.
Up next for Huntington Theatre Company will be Jonathan Spector's "EUREKA DAY" at the Roberts Theatre at the Huntington Theatre located at 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. 02115 running from May 29th through June 28th, 2026.
For tickets and more information, contact Huntington Theatre Company online at huntingtontheatre.org, by phone at # 617-266-0800 or in person at Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston.
BUY TICKETS
Approximately one hour, 40 minutes with no intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
Luis Alfaro reimagines Sophocles’ classic in his acclaimed and electrifying "OEDIPUS EL REY," set in the heart of Los Angeles. "OEDIPUS" dreams of rewriting his own story - but liberation comes at a price:
Can he truly escape the destiny laid out before him?
What’s fate, and what’s just the system?
A searing tale of love, family, and prophecy, "OEDIPUS EL REY" blends ancient myth with modern urgency and Chicano swagger with swaths of sly humor.
Artistic Director Loretta Greco, who led the acclaimed premiere of "OEDIPUS EL REY" at The Magic Theatre, creates a production especially for Boston.
ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY
THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY is Boston’s leading professional theatre and one of the region’s premier cultural assets since its founding in 1982. Recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, THE HUNTINGTON brings together superb local and national talent and produces a mix of groundbreaking new works and classics made current to create award-winning productions. THE HUNTINGTON runs nationally renowned programs in education and new play development and serves the local theatre community through its operation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. THE HUNTINGTON has long been an anchor cultural institution of Huntington Avenue, the Avenue of the Arts, and will remain so on a permanent basis with plans to convert the Huntington Avenue Theatre into a first-rate, modern venue with expanded services to audiences, artists, and the community. THE HUNTINGTON cultivates, celebrates, and champions theatre as an art form.
