College students, playwrights and actors have labored for two millennia to interpret and perform “Antigone,” Sophocles’ Athenian tragedy written in 441 B.C.
Earlier this month, a small group of School school college students condensed the tactic into decrease than a month — concluding in a one-night-only effectivity at T.F. Inexperienced Hall Dec. 7. The manufacturing, directed by Emily Mayo ’24, was cast, staged and rehearsed in solely 4 weeks and lacked any official funding or worth vary.
“Antigone” is the ultimate of Sophocles’s Theban performs, which adjust to the “rise and fall of Oedipus’s House,” as brothers Eteocles and Polynices battle for his or her kingdom’s throne, in keeping with the play’s program. Mayo based the manufacturing’s story and script on Anne Carson’s translation of the standard Greek tragedy, which affords a recent sort out the story.
The current was tailor-made to “theatre in-the-round” —with viewers members sitting on all sides of a central stage — which Mayo talked about was “a improbable downside for any actor and screenwriter,” as a result of the cast had “nowhere to cowl.”
Mayo talked about that she chosen this manufacturing mannequin because of the story’s intense emotions and the need for every viewers member to be “complicit in what’s occurring” as they witnessed the characters’ selections.
The Dec. 7 manufacturing opened with a dialogue between sisters Antigone and Ismene, carried out by Grace Miller ’24 and Abby Schindell ’25 respectively, about their brother’s burial rites. The effectivity deviated from Sophocles’s distinctive script at components as Carson’s translation was meant to be additional modern, which Mayo hoped would make the play additional related for present-day audiences.
“Antigone” has quite a few central themes, along with “grief, female rage (and) power and who will get to downside it,” in keeping with the current’s program. Although Mayo talked about that she would not contemplate the play’s ending has an moral, every Miller and Mayo talked about that they appreciated “Antigone” for its dialogue of whether or not or not or not battle can have a correct reply, along with its dialogues about justice and the needs of individuals.
Whereas the plot of “Antigone” simply is not considerably associated to modern life, “individuals are nonetheless the an identical, and the core emotions that these people actually really feel are emotions we see from, converse from and draw from,” Mayo talked about.
Miller added that the story’s modern-day relevance comes from its timeless dialogue about and questioning of values.
The plot of “Antigone” is primarily pushed by its characters barely than a easy narrative, Mayo well-known. “To some extent, regardless that there is a guiding plot, (“Antigone”) is a set of character portraits,” she talked about.
JL Zhang ’24, who carried out Creon — king of Thebes and Antigone’s uncle — was drawn to audition for “Antigone” after they observed a Nationwide Theatre manufacturing of the play.
Zhang talked about that their perform as Creon was carefully influenced by the modifications made throughout the current’s translation. “One of the simplest ways Creon interacts with language … is so antithetical to how I am as a person,” they talked about.
Zhang, as Creon, had among the many many most stage time and basically essentially the most interactions with completely different characters inside the current’s cast. The current’s core battle comes from Creon’s dictatorial ruling mannequin — which underscored the importance of the perform, Zhang talked about.
To rearrange, Zhang joked that they repeatedly listened to “The Calling” by The Killers — and practiced having a look at their fellow cast members from a spot of superiority.
Miller talked about she prepped for her perform by “fascinated about being 16 and seeing points in (a) very quite a bit black-and-white headspace,” which she thought mirrored Antigone’s way of life.
She hoped that, after watching the current, audiences thought of “what’s essential to them … The types of ideas that they value, the kinds of points they … (assume are) worth sacrificing.”
Get The Herald delivered to your inbox day-to-day.