Mark Strong and Lesley Manville make ancient tragedy ‘Oedipus’ a political thriller

Who are you?

That most basic question perplexes people, just as it did when Greek dramatist Sophocles wrote about the cursed king Oedipus two and a half millennia ago.

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.

You'd think there would be no surprises in the story of a ruler who - 2,500-year-old spoiler alert - unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. But on this week's opening night there were gasps from some in the audience at Wyndham's Theatre as the truth dawned.

"I heard gasping, I heard laughter, and I could hear a pin drop," Strong told The Associated Press. "We had a little bit of everything,...