Anthony Fauci stepped into an unlikely spotlight at Georgetown University on Tuesday night, trading his white coat for the role of Tiresias in a dramatic reading of Sophocles's Oedipus the King. The 85-year-old scientist, who became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic, made his acting debut donning sunglasses to portray the blind prophet in the ancient Greek tragedy.
The event, held in Georgetown's ornate Gaston Hall before an audience of 700 that included students, climate activists and policymakers, was part of DC Climate Week and hosted by Theater of War Productions. Fauci shared the stage with Hollywood actor Jesse Eisenberg, who played Oedipus, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Theater of War Productions, founded in 2009, has built a reputation for using classical drama to explore contemporary crises. Past productions have tackled military PTSD, the Ukrainian refugee crisis, and racial violence in policing. This time, the company reframed Sophocles's tale of a king denying catastrophic truth as a mirror for climate denial and inaction.
Fauci, who majored in classics at Holy Cross and spent decades warning administrations about infectious disease threats, proved apt casting. When he delivered Tiresias's warning to the stubborn king, the hall erupted. "Ah, how terrible it is to know when, in the end, knowing gains you nothing," he intoned from behind the dark glasses.
In remarks before the performance, Fauci drew a direct line between the play's themes and modern climate crisis. "When you see something that's potentially as destructive as climate change, it's right in front of you, you're seeing it, and then there's this constant denial about it," he said. "An unusual way to put that in the context of a Greek tragedy but it works."
Eisenberg, known for roles in The Social Network and Zombieland, framed the play as a study in willful blindness. "He won't listen to reason, he ignores evidence and demonises anybody who tries to contradict what he assumes and what he thinks," the actor said of his character. "What's special about doing it with Dr Fauci, of course, is that it comes with all sorts of other resonance that can be quite allegorically potent."
Theater of War artistic director Bryan Doerries saw the meta-theatrical potential in having Fauci deliver truth-telling lines to a symbolic king. "One of the thrills of the scene is that he actually gets to tell Oedipus off and I never got to see Tony tell anybody off," Doerries said. He added that rehearsals gave Fauci "the only moment in your professional career where you can actually tell the king off in the way that you've always wanted to."
After the 75-minute reading, the actors joined the audience for a town hall discussion facilitated by Doerries. The responses cut to raw nerves about climate action and truth-telling in politics. An undergraduate studying environmental sustainability compared the play's dismissal of Tiresias to modern treatment of climate scientists. "I feel like that's so reflective of what we're seeing with climate denial," she said.
Novelist and environmental academic Nathaniel Rich, joining via Zoom, highlighted the psychological cost of climate awareness. Everyone shares complicity in the problem, he argued, creating a "sickening feeling" that makes it easier to blame distant villains than to reckon with personal responsibility.
A freshman student offered the night's most hopeful note: "I don't think what happened to Oedipus was inevitable. We are Oedipus before the wretched end. We have a chance to fight for a better ending."
When asked during the pre-show interview to compare the play's warnings to current political figures or the health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Fauci chuckled and demurred. "I get in enough trouble," he said, adding he preferred to remain "under the radar" while continuing to teach medical residents and interns.
Author James Rodriguez: "Brilliant casting, brilliant timing, and just the right amount of subtext to make a 2,500-year-old play feel urgently modern."
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