Montgomery Bjornson stars as Oedipus opposite Wendy Magahay as Jocasta in Theatre Inconnu’s production of the unorthdox love story Jocasta Regina, opening tonight at the company’s stage on Fernwood Road.
What: Jocasta Regina Where: Theatre Inconnu, 1923 Fernwood Rd. When: Opens 8 p.m. tonight, continues to May 20 Tickets: $10, $14 (via ticketrocket.co, 250-3600234 or tinconnu@islandnet.com)
When it comes to taboos, incest is particularly difficult for society to accept.
Yet that’s one of Nancy Huston’s aims in Jocasta Regina, a theatrical retelling of the classic Oedipus myth.
Her 2009 play portrays Oedipus 20 years after his marriage to Jocasta. The two have had four children together and jointly rule the city of Thebes.
However, it turns out that, unbeknownst to him, Jocasta is Oedipus’s mother.
To modern audiences, it sounds unlikely. Yet those familiar with the Greek myth know how, through Byzantine plot twists and misunderstandings, such a thing might occur.
Actor Wendy Magahay, who plays Jocasta in Jocasta Regina, says Huston aims to have us re-examine this unorthodox love story with fresh eyes.
“There is no sense I am ‘in love with my son.’ It’s: ‘I am in love with this man.’ It’s a good, rich love. And then it all falls apart,” she said.
Directed by Clayton Jevne, the Theatre Inconnu production of this rarely performed play co-stars Montgomery Bjornson as Oedipus.
The cast includes Autumn Antonsen, Geli Bartlett, Catriona Black and Amber Landry.
Calgary-born Huston, who is based in Paris, is best known as a novelist and essayist. Educated at Sarah Lawrence College in New York state, she has published more than 45 fiction and non-fiction books.
In 1993, she was awarded the Governor General’s Award for best French-language novel for Cantique des plaines.
Jocasta Regina was written at the request of a Swiss director who believed the character of Jocasta needed a fresh theatrical voice.
Resetting the Greek myth in contemporary times, Huston paints Jocasta sympathetically, portraying her as a good mother. When Oedipus learns that his wife (who is 14 years older) is also his mother, Jocasta argues in favour of retaining their marriage.
Magahay says Jocasta Regina is not so much a play about incest as an examination of one’s freedom to make choices, despite how they are viewed by society. Jevne, who chose the play, agrees.
The question, he says, is whether any action can be a crime if it isn’t carried out with immoral intent and there is no victim.
“So much of society is based on this kind of moral authority where we don’t stop to think: ‘Does this actually affect anybody?’ ” he said.
Jevne first encountered Huston’s writing after a friend attended one of her lectures and was impressed. After reading one of her novels, Jevne found a copy of Jocasta Regina in the library and decided to stage it.
Getting the rights to the obscure play was tricky. Jocasta Regina was originally written in French, then translated by Huston into English.
However, the English publisher had gone out of business.
After following several leads unsuccessfully, Jevne contacted Paul Kennedy, who had interviewed Huston on his CBC radio show Ideas. Through Kennedy, he was able to eventually locate the playwright’s agent.
Magahay, 58, is a notable actor in Victoria’s community-theatre scene.
She has been impressive in such productions as Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, Carole Frechette’s A Small Room at the Top of the Stairs and Lady Windermere’s Fan.
Her theatre background is a bit unusual. Magahay trained as an actor, studying theatre at Dalhousie University and McGill University.
However, rather than becoming a professional actor, she opted to take a more conventional career path.
She trained as a teacher and took a graduate degree in curriculum design, going on to teach the subject at the university level.
Seventeen years ago, she and her husband took early retirement and moved to Victoria from Ottawa, coming here “completely on spec for the climate.” Here, she finally returned to acting. On a friend’s dare, Magahay successfully auditioned for Langham Court Theatre’s production of Hotel Sorrento in 2001 — and hasn’t looked back since.
“It did feel a bit scary at first,” she said. “But it quickly came to feel overdue.”