Antigone
Helen Eastman's adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone invites its audience to a press briefing for some breaking news from Thebes: Creon (Nicholas Osmond) is about to give his first public address as the town's new ruler. It's a day full of hope for a new era, despite recent tragic events: brothers Eteocles and Polynices have died in a melee between them. And now, Creon has decided to give Eteocles a proper burial, leaving Poloynices' body to the crows, just outside the city walls. Ahead of the briefing, which is entitled, 'New Dawn', I have been asked if I would like to opt in to receive texts from 'Thebes PR' alerting me to any breaking news, developments, or updates. I eagerly accept the T's and C's and await for the 'briefing', which is to go 'live' on Zoom, to start.
It's at this point that I begin to rub against the chosen format for this press briefing. In real life, we don't exactly watch press briefings on Zoom; this is a corporate platform for team meetings, group panels, academic talks, perhaps even educational webinars. Already, the platform seems a tad misplaced. I would imagine a more appropriate alternative to be something akin to YouTube Live or at the site of a news channel with the option to 'watch live', or even, Instagram Live (I have actually personally waited for a Kamala Harris press conference on Instagram Live, believe it or not). On the other hand, perhaps Zoom is Creation Theatre's platform of choice due to the control the platform brings: for starters, tickets come at a fixed price, which would prove difficult to implement on an open platform or website without a paywall. As the action of the piece, too, flits from the anchor's (Jon Edgley Bond) reporting on current events to 'live' statements made by Creon, Ismene (Emily Woodward), and Eurydice (Anna Tolputt), it's also easier for technicians behind the scenes to implement screen sharing as the move from live scripted material to pre-recorded material. Other news outlets and reporters engage in live scripted questioning with the anchor via chat, making it easy to visually identify which reporters from which papers have a vested interest in today's events.
Here, I wondered what might have happened had the audience joined in on the action. Yes, there was one moment where a 'survey' via Mentimeter was circulated to viewers, asking them if Creon's actions were right, how viewers would describe Creon in a few words, and if Antigone was right to protest. Again, Mentimeter does feel a bit out of place here, as it's mostly used as an educational tool in UK classrooms. But to return to the entertainment of further audience engagement or interaction, the performers were so spry moving from beat to beat that, in hindsight, it seems as if they almost weren't given the chance. There are brief moments, such as when Antigone (Ailsa Joy) 'breaks in' to the briefing to tell her side and give a 'formal statement': she addresses a few chosen audience members by name, asking them what they would do were they in her position, watching on as her brother's corpse is left to rot. But, for the most part, we are watching on passively as tragedy after tragedy unfolds. In this way, the press briefing is a clever device that accurately reflects our contemporary engagement with news media: we are inundated with floods of news content, which is almost inescapable. But does it permit us to engage anymore? Recent productions, like 'Antigone in Ferguson', engages with Antigone's story through the lens of Black Lives Matter and the Ferguson Rebellion specifically. It's a quite targeted message on how we relate to the news we consume. Whilst Creation Theatre's adaptation is far more generic, it nonetheless allows us to draw our own connections to current events, especially in the midst of an eventful election year in the US.
Like our news media, each new event breaks quicker than the next, and I thoroughly applaud both the breakneck speed of the ensemble as well as Eastman's ability to condense an epic Greek tragedy into only one hour. Where this production is most successful is in its ability to clarify the units of action from Sophocles' original work. This creates something extremely digestible, especially for those who are naturally classic text-challenged, like myself.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
I saw Antigone on 28 September, which was the last day of that run. But not to fear! They will be running again from 21-23 November 2024. For more info and tickets, go to: https://creationtheatre.co.uk/show/antigone/ .
