2008 Season

Antigone
Adapted by Lewis Galantiere
From the play by Jean Anouilh

Directed by Mickey Lund

With Bryan Barrett, Nick Beschen, Jamie Hanna, Hallie Garrison, Frank B. Moorman, Josh Riffle, Theresa Riffle, Robby Rose, Becki Placella, Donna Soraparu

During the battle for Thebes, both of Antigone’s brothers were killed. Creon, now king, has decreed that while Antigone’s brother Eteocles should be given the usual respectful burial, Polynices must be left as carrion for scavengers. When she attempts to bury Polynices, Antigone is brought before Creon as a prisoner. He attempts to overlook the offense – perhaps because Antigone is betrothed to his son Haemon – but Antigone refuses to disclaim responsiblity for her actions.

Director’s Notes

Anouilh’s Antigone was written at the heart of the Nazi conflict in Germany in 1944 and has more often that not been viewed as a commentary on the Nazi occupation and the heroism of the resistance. To this end, Creon stands as a dictatorial tyrant forced into committing the most “loathsome” of acts as a direct result of his having said yes to power, while Antigone stands alone as the single resistance fighter who subverts her uncle’s state-given authority, both discovering how resistance often serves as a dangerous contagion to power and authoritarian rule.

Adding to this view of the famous Greek myth is the idea that Creon makes it impossible for Antigone to use political resistance or moral law as a reason for burying her borther Polynices, despite his edict that anyone doing so will be put to death. Antigone’s justification for her “madness” in this pursuit therefore stems from basic human need and feeling. In the words of the Greed Chorus, “Antigone is finally able to be herself.”

When viewing Anouilh’s Antigone through this lens, it is impossible not to find relelvance to the world we live in today. That bridge between the world of old and the world of now is the very reason Dignity Players selected Antigone as its opening play for the 2008 season. Despite a global insistence that tragic events such as the Holocaust shall never happen again, we hear news everyday of genocide in places like Darfur and of ethnic cleansing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. We continue to support leaders like General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, who governs his country with an iron fist, or the leader of Saudia Arabia, who relegates women to the status of second-class citizens. When will we ever learn?

Antigone died young, yes, but she dies with a passion for life, knowing she had done all she could do in the little time she had. Creon, however, learned his lessons the hard way, spending the remainder of his days alone, dying old and bitter having never done anything for himself, holding on with his last breath to a power and authority he could have refused. It is my belief that the young and wild Antigone still has much to teach us; all we need to do is take a moment to hear her, to see her, and to open our minds to her passionate belief in moral law and the dignity of all people.