Gory

In the first act, The Fall of Oedipus, the curtain rises to Tom Pye’s impressive towers of stones held in place by wire caging. Stricken by plague, the citizens of Thebes demand that Oedipus consult the oracle at Delphi to discover why they have displeased the gods. As Roland Wood’s Oedipus hears witnesses from the past with growing unease, Queen Jocasta (Susan Bickley) makes light of the prophecies of the revered sage Tiresias - bass Matthew Best cross-dressed in brocade gown, bandeau and bun. Jocasta’s suicide and Oedipus’s self-blinding when all is revealed bring a fittingly gory climax to the act.

For some reason, possibly to do with the staging, the next two tragedies are played in reverse order of time, the play Antigone preceding The Death of Oedipus. The towers, cleverly lit by Jean Kalman, resemble skyscrapers at night. Jocasta’s brother Creon (Peter Hoare in splendidly creepy form) has seized power and turned Thebes into a police state.  Antigone’s defiance of Creon in burying her brother Polynices (Jonathan McGovern) leads to her being walled up alive.

Propaganda

Original Bones

Traveling to Florence, Italy, is like going to a Renaissance art museum the size of a small city.  So, it shouldn't be to startling to hear that the woman in the world's most famous painting, Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", may have been laid to rest in Firenze. Now, archaeologists and scientists are trying to find out if this truly is the case.

The subject of Mona Lisa is widely agreed upon as being Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. While her identity is established, the location of her remains is still a mystery. But, after archaeologists began digging into the soil under the chapel of the Convent of St. Ursula, they started finding bones which could be Gherardini's. Thus far, the bones have been extracted and are scheduled to be tested for DNA and radiocarbon dating, reports the Times of India.

DNA from the bones will be compared to the bones of two of Gherardini's sons. Earlier, bones thought to be Gherardini's were discovered but after conducting radioactive dating, were found to be 200 years older than the remains of Gherardini's would have been, reports ABC News. Gherardini died on July 15th, 1542, at the age of 63. 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/mona-lisas-bones-possibly-discovered-2012-7#ixzz215yBZIka