Broken, disrupted, brief. The Old Vic’s high-profile adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy may be the second in town in a few months, but it doesn’t mess around. The thumping and protracted dance routines scattered through this adaptation won’t be for everyone but make an intoxicating substitute for a Greek Chorus and highlight the sparse tragic chapters in Ella Hickson’s reinterpretation of Oedipus Rex.

With Thebes wracked by drought, famine and despair, King Oedipus (Rami Malek) dispatches his brother-in-law, Creon, to consult the oracle at Delphi despite the warnings of his wife, Jocasta (Indira Varma). When the oracle links the disaster to the unsolved murder of Oedipus’ Jocasta’s former husband, Laius, Oedipus vows to uncover the murderer’s identity and save his people. 

The people trust in their king for salvation. After all, he’s the man who solved the riddle of the Sphinx to take the crown in their last hour of need. As Oedipus receives further warnings from the blind prophet Tiresias, he vows to uncover the truth, no matter the cost. But few in Thebes are ready for the horrific revelations that have brought the city to despair. 

Old Vic Artistic Director Matthew Warchus shares directing duties with Hofesh Shechter, whose ground-breaking dance company is the story’s drumming engine. The long moments of frenetic, fractured or slow dance are loud and hypnotic. The figures that flip from synchronised steps to a writhing mass respond to the sprawling tragedy of the story. They are the citizens of Thebes, who suffer and reel at events, but they’re also an atavistic and effective way to carry the story, as unrelenting as the play’s central truth. Their inclusion sits brilliantly against the light modern touches in the minimalistic staging, which incorporates cut suits, microphones and tape players. However, the play’s modern echoes, particularly its exploration of populism, are wisely explored with a light touch. 

Running without an interval, Oedipus zips past with the compact dialogue searing in a solid, square set. Giant Thebian doors slide across the centre stage, leaving sharp rays of light to catch huddled citizens with long shadows as Thebes’ elite argue and plead. Often, notably during Oedipus’s addresses to his suffering people (the audience), the vast back wall is dominated by a large sun that tilts from dawn to dusk as the revelations come thick and fast. 

Rami Malek has an extraordinary physicality. Square and rugged, with controlled movements, his open, stoic expression easily picked out from the back of the stalls. His distinctive delivery wraps around his lines to sell the incredible emotion swirling around the cursed character. He shows extraordinary depth, particularly in the final stages when he plaintively and repeatedly asks any woman who knows about his past if they are his mother – which, like much of the play, could easily tip into comedy in the wrong hands.

Opposite him, Indira Varma is the perfect foil. Glamorous and more casual, her delivery hits opposite peaks to Malek’s, their sparring confronting and confounding as the heat rises.  

Oedipus is brilliantly cast, with each actor drawing out what’s necessary from their characters, not least that central pair. Oedipus must stick out by reputation and power to add weight to his rise to power and the shock of revelations. Jocasta must balance a dual purpose until deep in the play, fearing oracles because of her long-buried knowledge, although completely ignorant of the truth she’s hiding.  

Oedipus walks a fine line between revelation and doubt that powers the clashes between its characters, just as it should. This production barely puts a step wrong, but one highlight is the haunting representation of the oracle. It’s presented as a haunting reverb tape machine in a briefcase retrieved from the desert that serves up Beckettian moments that chill to the bone. 

In the end, with Oedipus broken and lost but still calm and steely, his eyes removed, the extraordinary laugh from his daughter Antigone is likely to be one of the most incredible moments on the London stage this year.