The Seven (play)

Before its 2006 premiere as a two-act play at New York Theatre Workshop, the work had been developed in San Francisco as a one-act presentation.

[1] The Seven is a modernized version of the Greek tragedy, Seven Against Thebes written in 467 BC by Aeschylus, which relates a story about King Oedipus' sons, Eteocles and Polynices fighting to gain control over the city of Thebes.

Power set his re-working of the play in a contemporary American urban setting, and used rhyming couplets and a range of musical styles such as hip-hop, soul, funk, R&B and a capella to relate to the story to contemporary concerns.

[2] Charles Isherwood, a critic for the New York Times, called the play "a strange new hybrid: a hip-hop musical comedy-tragedy.

"[3] The New York Theatre Workshop presentation was directed by Jo Bonney with choreography by Bill T. Jones.