Jumaane Williams to star in Oedipus trilogy

He’s a Public Advocate for All Seasons.

Jumaane Williams, the city’s top public watchdog, will take the stage in October, when he is scheduled to appear in all three plays of Sophocles’ Oedipus Trilogy.

The show will be put on by Theater of War Productions and will be streamed online. Live performances are planned as well, assuming no pandemic-related complications.

Williams, 45, is currently slated to be among the chorus in “Oedipus Rex” and “Oedipus at Colonus,” but will take on the larger role of Haemon in “Antigone.”

“He’s one of our best. We have over 200 actors in our company. He is a remarkable performer,” Bryan Doerries, the company’s artistic director, told The Post. “It was a surprise to us as well when we first started working with him in 2016 before he was Public Advocate. He was a city councilman.”

Williams has appeared in no less than 43 Theater of War productions. Over the years he’s worked on some of the cannon’s most notable warhorses, including Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound,” Euripides’ “The Madness of Heracles,” and Sophocles’ “Ajax.” He’s performed at the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

Theater of War bills itself as a social justice oriented company and the plays are performed to be part of a larger discussion with cast and audience about specific issues.

“What we’re after is public health and discussions about issues of social justice that are framed by theatrical performances,” Doerries said. Williams starred in Doerries “Antigone in Ferguson” which had a New York City run in 2019 and focuses on the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Jumaane Williams will take the stage in October, when he is scheduled to appear in all three plays of Sophocles' Oedipus Trilogy.
Jumaane Williams will take the stage in October, when he is scheduled to appear in all three plays of Sophocles’ Oedipus Trilogy.
REUTERS

Williams also took part in a dramatic reading of Martin Luther King’s “Drum Major Instinct” sermon in January, which featured contributions from House squad members Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Ayanna Pressley.

Before he entered public life, Williams had been an aspiring actor. In his 20s he took bit parts in music videos like “Touch Me” by Solo and “Da Joint” by rap pair EPDM.

“Theater was always the thing I wanted to do,” Williams said in a 2019 interview, and called acting his “first love.”

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