Screen stars Mark Strong and Lesley Manville return to the London stage in director Robert Icke’s adaptation, “Oedipus,” which fuses the primal power of the ancient tragedy with a modern-day political thriller. It wants anyone who thought identity politics was a new concern to think again.

Lesley Manville and Mark Strong are spellbinding in Robert Icke ’s wrenchingly tense reworking of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy. Here Oedipus is an insurgent political wunderkind, a bit Macron and a bit Obama. His promise to govern openly and honestly opens up the worst possible cache of family secrets, from patricide to incest.

This eternal dilemma hums and throbs relentlessly from the start of these hurtling two interval-free hours, as political leader Oedipus (Mark Strong) awaits the results of a general election with his family.

Oedipus first premiered in Amsterdam in 2018, performed in Dutch, then played Edinburgh International Festival a year later. This belated West End visit retains the original’s stark European feel, but has a new cast anchored by the undeniable chemistry of its stars Mark Strong and Lesley Manville.

Rob Icke’s reimagining of Sophocles’ 2,500-year-old tragedy boasts a starry cast, but does it have the critics tearing their eyes out? Fergus Morgan rounds up the reviews.

Starring the internationally renowned, multi award-winning Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, Sophocles’ epic tragedy is transformed into an essential, explosive human thriller.