PlayMakers Rep Cancels Oedipus Opening Due to HVAC Failure
Opening night of the theatrical premiere of Oedipus: King/Colonus at Playmakers Rep in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, scheduled for September 12, was cancelled at the last moment after the venue’s HVAC system failed during a prolonged heatwave with temperatures not dipping below 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
An Anniversary Production and a Brutal Heatwave
Playmakers Rep artistic director Vivienne Benesch and adapter Carey Perloff originally conceived the ambitious production to celebrate the theatre company’s 50th anniversary. The staging brought together the entire company of actors and MFA students to perform an adaptation of the three Theban plays of Sophocles on PlayMakers’ thrust stage. The production featured a fully sung Chorus with music composed by multi-instrumentalist David Coulter, alongside a design team comprising set and costume designer Lex Liang, sound designer Jane Shaw, and lighting designer Robert Wierzel.
Rehearsals and technical runs took place over five weeks in Chapel Hill during extreme heat. While previews proceeded despite the failing climate control system—with audiences filling the hot theatre and standing to cheer nightly—the university ultimately intervened. Venue administrators halted the scheduled September 12 opening night performance due to safety risks posed by the high temperatures for patrons, artists, staff, and equipment.
From Production Shutdown to Literary Insight
Reflecting on the abrupt cancellation, Perloff noted the parallel between the unmanageable environmental disruption and the thematic core of Sophocles’ work. The production’s journey began in March 2020 when Seattle Rep’s then-artistic director Braden Abraham offered commissions to support out-of-work directors during the Covid-19 pandemic. Perloff chose to tackle Sophocles, collaborating with actor John Douglas Thompson, with whom she had recently staged Hamlet.
Working backward from the end of the narrative led the team to start with Oedipus at Colonus, written decades after Oedipus Tyrannos. While the earlier play depicts a protagonist blinding himself in recognition of guilt, the later work features an aged Oedipus proclaiming his innocence and attributing his actions entirely to fate. The unexpected cancellation in Chapel Hill underscored the central thesis of the tragedies: human attempts to control destiny frequently collide with chance and nature.
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