Review: ANTIGONE EXITS, Chichester Festival Theatre
Photo credit: Andy Paradise
How do you make a play written 2,500 years ago about a mythical city whereby the daughter of Oedipus (the Greek who killed his father and married his own mother), Antigone, defies the new autocratic ruler of Thebes, Creon (her uncle) and therefore knowingly finds herself sentenced to death relevant to an audience today? Over the years, many have updated the story on stage and screen, and the outcome of the action is known to us all. Nina Segal’s adaptation, which closes the Minerva season, seeks to relate Antigone Exits to modern news events in the style of experimental theatre where normal theatrical conventions are rejected, the fourth wall is frequently broken, performers play roles and reveal themselves as actors, and we, in the audience, cease to be passive observers but guilty parties to the drama reflecting on our role in the modern world.
As we enter the space, the minimalist set of pale orange stage floor and three Papier-mâché rocks are dominated by a large shell-like half sphere and coloured floods overhead. The actors take their places on the shell as themselves in modern clothes, chatting out of character and watching the audience arrive. It is as if they are relaxing in the green room before the show. As the lights dim, they become a Greek chorus, alternately spitting out half lines to tell the back story to Sophocles’ original play.
Antigone’s brothers Eteocles and Polynices have agreed to take one year turns as ruler of Thebes, but when the latter returns to take up his turn, he is refused so they kill each other. Creon becomes ruler and decrees that his predecessor should be buried while Polynices should be left on the ground unburied to be eaten by scavengers. Antigone buries him, breaching the law and therefore must die. There is no uncertainty about that. Instead, it becomes a debate about right and wrong, about family vs the state, about punishment and forgiveness, about grief and hope. It is about being inside the circle or outside it.
So when Antigone carefully pours the black viscous liquid in a circle on the floor, she sets the stage for verbal battles between the alternative arguments, but Segal goes further to make sure the audience gets her message. Each actor, in turn, takes the microphone hanging in the centre of the circle to step out of character and relate a modern-day news story that has affected their life. It’s not very subtle, and most will recall the story of the search for a child of a woman who left a placenta on the back seat of her car or tales of Gaza babies left to die in bombed out hospitals. Whether the black viscous liquid represents the oil that global powers seek to control or the blood on the hands on those who control it, her challenge appears to be a call for us each to be like Ismene (Antigone’s sister) and survive, but perhaps we are challenged to reflect and seek to make a difference.
Under Jeff James’ direction, the young cast do well in these split personality roles. Creon (Max Bennett) is authoritative and unbending but reveals an emotional private grief. Antigone (Nina Cassells) is calm, determined but vulnerable. Eurydice (Creon’s wife) is loyal to her husband but a grieving mother. Ismene (Anushka Chakravarti ) is concerned and heartbroken but powerless. The prophet Tiresias (Melody Chikakane Brown) foresees the consequences but is powerless to intervene. The cast is completed by Brandon Bassir as Creon’s son, Haemon and Eteocles, and Testimony Adegbite as the Messenger and Polynices. They speak the rhyming lines with clarity and precision, they engage us in their moments on the microphone, and they work together as an impressive ensemble chorus. We enjoy their dance of death to David Bowie’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’ and reflected on the line “you are not alone”. Was that the message or was it just a convenient song about suicide to coincide with the deaths of Antigone. Eurydice and Haemon?
As a 21st century interpretation of both a Greek classic and experimental theatre, this is an interesting technical experience, well performed, a little preachy at times but certainly prompts debate and reflection on the way home which we are sure is the intent. Did this reviewer enjoy it? Perhaps not. Did this reviewer admire the effort ? Yes. Sometimes that is exactly what theatre should do.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
Antigone Exits plays at Chichester Festival Theatre until 17 Oct, with further info here.