The play Antigone was playing at the Hunter Frederick Lowe theatre and I was at first interested because I’d read the play in high school. Since I’d seen References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot in this same theater, this time around I knew where it was, where I was going and what to expect. This time around the stage was set-up such that there were mountains in the background, and there was a large platform made of sand bags. It worked together well and made the set seem like a desolate, and far away place, just as the play called for. The play was the story about the princess, Antigone, who goes against the King Creon’s decree, and buries her brother to bring her brother’s soul peace. Because of her blatant disregard for the law, Creon sentences her to death to set and example of the princess. As soon as he sentences Antigone to death nearly every other character tries to convince Creon to simply let Antigone’s transgression go. But Creon was too stubborn to see that what Antigone did was honorable above all else. During the entirety of the play there is this back and forth, between various characters on which has precedent, the state (the government) or the adherence to god, religion and family. By the end of the play it is obvious what idea the author of the play was trying to get across. He felt the gods were above all else everything else was secondary, and he make this plain by killing everyone who Creon loved by the end of the play. There is no other way in which he could have made his opinion plainer. One of my favorite things about the performance that was put on was the old woman, narrator. She gave and absolutely fantastic performance, her monologues about the destruction the war had brought and about how the gods will have their revenged, made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Something that I found very interesting was the use of guns in the show. If I’m not mistaken, there were no guns to be found in ancient Greece. I’d be curious to learn why it is that they decided to include them in the play. If I had to guess it further dramatizes some parts of the play, at least to an audience of our time period, and it was probably simply easier to incorporate guns into the play then have the actors wielding swords. I greatly enjoyed the play, and it was interesting to see they great dynamic that the Hunter College, theater department has such diversity in its performances.
Set Designer: Louisa Thompson
Lighting Designer: Nick Kolin
Written by: Sophocles
Directed by: Tea Alagic
Title of Work: Antigone
Material/Medium: play, visual and oral performance
Duration: November 30, 2011 to December 9, 2011
Genre: play, classical
Venue/Location: Hunter College at the Frederick Lowe Theatre
Accompaniment?: none, this was a sole adventure
