Death's greatest hits divide Sydney Festival crowd as blood and guts fly Oedipus Schmoedipus: Cast and volunteers let the blood run free. An early candidate has emerged for the Sydney Festival's most confronting, violent and divisive show. Oedipus Schmoedipus, described as "a mad medley of the greatest deaths ever brought to life on stage," features a blood-spattered opening that has characters dying graphically by gunshot, stabbing and poisoning. As stupid as it is, the scene's visceral impact is considerable The show, written by Mish Grigor, Zoe Coombs Marr and Natalie Rose, featured death scenes from classic plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Euripides, Ibsen and other playwrights. After the world premiere at Belvoir on Saturday night, the graphic nature of the violence drew comparisons with Quentin Tarantino's movies. The Herald theatre reviewer Jason Blake said the opening scene will throw some viewers. "Belvoir would do well to have its ushers on heightened alert for those distressed by its bloodletting (via self-inflicted gunshots, razors at the throat and wrist, knives in the guts) and brazen disregard for the limits of good taste," he writes in his review. As stupid as it is, the scene's visceral impact is considerable. The play, supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts NSW, also uses 25 volunteers a night - 700 over the season - to recite lines from classic plays about death and mortality. "In Oedipus Schmoedipus, by reordering the raw ingredients, removing its parts from the meaning of their fictional context, we hope to uncover something larger: a portrait, not of the playwright's visions, but of ourselves," its creators say in the program. Blake said the arrival of the volunteers on stage salvaged "one of the worst theatrical experiences of my life." On the festival's opening weekend, one of the hottest attractions was the jumping castle version of Stonehenge in Hyde Park. After pulling in up to 5800 visitors a day, Jeremy Deller's inflatable Sacrilege had to shut for an hour for some fast repairs on Sunday. Organisers called it a minor glitch, resulting from capacity crowds since it opened last week. That did not deter crowds. "The line went all the way to Macquarie Street," said the event co-ordinator for Sacrilege, Pieter Boon. People were advised that the wait was at least an hour and a half but they were willing to wait. Boon expects 60,000 people to have a 10-minute session on Sacrilege during the festival. Among the patient enthusiasts was Matheus Mendes Pincus, 7, who queued for an hour with his mother while his father waited in another long queue for free water. We had one hour to go for 10 minutes. But it was very fun.