Sophocle’s Antigone by Sport For Jove. Photograph by Marnya Rothe.
Welcome to war torn, devastated Thebes. First performed in 441BC , this new adaptation by Damien Ryan resonates now – Anitgone is extremely strong, powerful and gut wrenching. The audience is grabbed from the start. Ryan’s updated text, the use of the word ‘terrorist’ mean that this suddenly becomes a fresh, vibrant seemingly new play and the audience engages with its ideas as if it was written yesterday. We have to consider the alienation and demonisation of those currently considered public enemy and the dilemma of personal sacrifices for the common good. We also need to think about the creation and evolution in this age of social media.
The play asks big questions that still divide families today. In Ryan’s production it has been updated to now and could be any war torn shattered country. It ask big questions about justice and faith. What do you do with the unburied body of a terrorist left to rot? A murderer, who has brought destruction, death horror and destruction to the community – yet that terrorist is your nephew, your brother denied burial rites?
Have the gods organised it all? If so why? Antigone demands answers to three major questions: should Polynices be properly buried (if not,why not?), if someone who buried him against the law should be punished and whether Creon’s actions are just or not properly thought through.
The rubbled set ( Melanie Liertz) with its bashed somewhat floating and graffitied walls is most effective. The use of drumming and percussion as magnificently performed by Thomas Royce Hampton is chilling and thrilling.
The chorus (the people of Thebes), here led by a woman, Fiona Press – is splendid at times speaking in unison, at others in overlapping rhythms. All are individualise, some doubling as for example soldiers, guards or messengers. In stylish performances they guide our moral deliberations and force us to ponder the grey areas of right and wrong.
Antigone as magnificently played by Aandre Demetriades was a small, dark, courageous spitfire who defied the law and stood up for what she considered right. She demands justice and the right to bury her brother against all the patriarchal decrees. As King Creon William Zappa is superb in a towering performance. He has to choose and places his city-state above the welfare of his family, righteously upholding the law. We see him at first as a popular king announcing the introduction of Democracy. But events sharply change and we follow his Lear like fall – his stunned, shocked recognition of his niece Antigone and his first hurried denial, his charismatic hypnotic monologue describing the death of his nephews and why he ‘’has to’ leave the body of Polynieces to rot unburied, and his shattered entrance, almost oblivious to Tiresias, at the end with the body of his son Haemon.
Antigone’s sister Ismene, acting as a foil to her sibling, is gentler and more law abiding. She fears Creon and hesitates, is torn in the family disruption.
Creon’s wife Eurydice ( Deborah Galanos ) is in Ryan’s version shown as an exhausted, overworked surgeon at a hospital with minimal facilities.
Haemon, prince of Thebes and engaged to Antigone is wonderfully played by handsome Joseph del Re. He is torn and unwillingly caught up in the tragic dilemma and situations. The love scenes between him and Antigone are beautifully done.
Anna Volska as the blind seer Tiresias acts as the voice of reason whose prophecy leads to the proper burial of Polyneices. A voice crying in the wilderness for justice asserts the right of the individual to reject society’s infringement on her freedom to perform a personal obligation. But this can lead to tragedy.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
Sophocle’s Antigone by Sport For Jove
CAST
Antigone Andrea Demetriades
Creon William Zappa
Ismene Louisa Mignone
Eurydice Deborah Galanos
Haemon Joseph Del Re
Tiresias Anna Volska
CREATIVES
Director Damien Ryan and Terry Karabelas
Set and Costume Design Melanie Liertz
Lighting Matt Cox
Sound Design Bryce Halliday and Thomas Royce Hampton
Sophocle’s Antigone by Sport For Jove is at:
The Reginald, the Seymour Centre 6-22 October
Canberra 27-29 October and
Riverside Theatre Parramatta 9-12 November
