In THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES, Sophocles' seven surviving plays - OEDIPUS, IN TRACHIS, PHILOKTETES, IN COLONUS, AJAX, ELEKTRA and ANTIGONE - combine with music and food to create a stunning portrait of the human condition, where the intermingling of chance and fate yields disquieting results. A witty and relevant interpretation of the classics, THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES is an epic examination of the past and a window on the present. "One of the many surprising things about director Sean Graney's SOPHOCLES: THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES - his altogether fascinating and original interpretation of the surviving tragedies by the seminal force in ancient Greek theater (and most all of Western theater that followed) - is how often he and his actors make the audience laugh. To be sure, much of the laughter in this epic production is blackly comic - an acknowledgment of the colossally demented mess human beings make of things, whether political or personal. It is laughter in the face of monumental violence, selfishness, lies, betrayals, egotism, envy, lost honor, an unending cycle of carnage and revenge, and a general madness, especially in wartime. It is the laughter of self-awareness and compulsion. It is the laughter that comes when the horrors just keep piling up, and the maniacal absurdity of it all seems unstoppable. And it is laughter (and attitude) that could not be more hip, contemporary or, as the title suggests, 'sick.' Graney's intensely visceral adaptation, which runs about three hours and 40 minutes is bookended by Sophocles's most familiar plays - beginning with OEDIPUS THE KING and ending with both ELEKTRA and ANTIGONE." -Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times "Over the course of this ambitious adaptation of Sophocles's seven surviving plays, blood erupts from just about every orifice, onto just about every article of clothing and just about every square inch of the narrow stage." -Catherine Rampell, New York Times "When Aristotle immortalized the term hubris, he could well have been talking about Sean Graney ... who, this fall, decided to adapt and stage not one Sophoclean drama, but all seven at once ... The rakish SEVEN SICKNESSES would be a boon to many colleges." -Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
