WHEN I first saw the cult opera Greek at The Everyman in 2000 I seemed to be the oldest person in the audience.

This time round I felt I was one of the youngest.

Is this because its composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, now 51, has become part of the musical establishment?

Whatever the explanation, the work retains its capacity to shock.

A reworking of the Oedipus myth, its hero is Eddy who decides to leave the parental home in the East End after his dad tells him of a fortune-teller's prediction that he will kill his dad and marry his mother – which Eddy regards as a load of old cobblers.

Out in the real world this cocky youth, convincingly played by Marcus Farnsworth, gets involved in a riot, is beaten up by the police, goes into a cafe where he complains about the poor service, kicks the owner to death and ends up marrying his widow.

After a blissful ten years of marriage Eddy's true identity is suddenly revealed and he is shocked out of his mind.

Conductor Michael Rafferty does a superb job with Turnage's gritty, jazz-influenced score and a cast of four singers, in multiple roles, bring the characters to life convincingly.

Sally Silver and a cloth-capped Gwion Thomas are utterly true to life as Eddy's doting (and boring) parents, and Louise Winter seems to shed years during her second marriage.

There are a number of imaginative touches in Michael McCarthy's production.

The cast dash into the audience with loud hailers during the frightening demonstration scene, and Eddy wraps the flag of St George around himself when he goes off to confront the sphinx like a crusader knight, plastic sword in hand.

The opera was written in 1988, but seems to have aged well. With its background of man-induced pestilence and moral corruption it is still a tale for our time.

Roger Jones