Why is Sophocles storming the West End? Because in our extreme times, his plays say the unsayable | Charlotte Higgins

One version of Oedipus the King , starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville , has just finished.

Another has just opened at the Old Vic , starring Rami Malek and Indira Varma .

At the same time, Sophocles ’ much less often performed Elektra is showing in the West End , starring Brie Larson (known to many as Captain Marvel in the movie franchise).

Warchus told me that along the way he had thought about Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective .

It is better, perhaps, to say that Oedipus is contingent, rather than evergreen.

It offers new angles of vision with every playing, ones that shift to meet the moment.