By Tina Hawley
Sophocles’ Antigone is a story that has been around for a very long time, but if there’s one thing more traditional in theatre than Greek tragedies, it’s taking a modern spin on an old tale, and DAM Good Production’s performance at the BYU Museum of Art in Provo, Utah has done a fascinating take on both. Written around 440 B.C., Antigone is the third and final of Sophocles’ Theban plays chronologically, and its plot is a powerful examination of familial loyalty, civil disobedience, and love. It might seem counterintuitive to put on a play with such big ideas in such a small space as the BYU MOA’s basement auditorium, yet under Daniel Mesta’s direction, the sparse scenery and nearly colorless costume palette of the small cast only serve to bring this play’s passionate emotions and conflicted characters to the forefront of the audience’s attention.
Antigone picks up directly after Thebes’ civil war ends with the deaths of two of the previous king Oedipus’s children, the brothers Eteocles and Polyneices. Polyneices is condemned as a rebel and forbidden an honorable burial (a horrific punishment during Sophocles’ time) by the new ruler of Thebes, Creon (Chelsea Mortensen). The play opens with Polyneices’ two sisters grieving and arguing whether anything should be done about it. Ismene (Sariah Lyles) says they have no chance of defying the king’s edict, while Antigone (Rachel Bennett), furious over her brother’s disgrace, is determined to sneak out to the killing field and administer Polyneices’ funeral rites herself. When she is caught in the act, Creon, his advisors, and his son Haemon (Ren Cottam)—also Antigone’s betrothed—clash with each other as love and civil duty come into deadly conflict.
In traditional interpretations of the play, King Creon is advised by an entire chorus of advisors who provide exposition, often in song, throughout the play. Here, Mesta has replaced the traditional Greek chorus with two opposing advisors, Psyre (Natalie Herbst) and Naidentro (Zoe Trepanier), who play off of each other while vying for Creon’s approval. Herbst and Trepanier manage to condense an amorphous group into two defined characters, and Herbst in particular draws much sympathy with her tearful pleas to Creon for mercy. The guard (Parley Lambert) who captures Antigone in the act of burying her brother plays a surprisingly significant part in the proceedings, and while his emotional reactions sometimes distract a little from the named characters, Lambert plays him sincerely and well. Lyles as Ismene seems a little stiff and nervous onstage, but after a while it feeds into the uncertain lack of confidence that keeps Ismene from defending her sister as well as she’d like to.
Themes of mourning and death throughout the play are emphasized by the musical accompaniment Mesta has added (performed by Mesta and violinist Antoinette Renouf). The cast members take turns singing along to a slow, haunting rendition of the English folk song “The Unquiet Grave,” providing only one or two stanzas at a time during scene changes, and the slow progression of the grief-filled lyrics is mirrored as the tale takes a tragic downturn. Lyles and Cottam in particular have strong voices and their verses are stirring and emotional.
Bennett plays Antigone with fiery indignation and a passion for justice that puts the audience firmly on her side in this conflict. When Creon condemns her to be buried alive for her defiance despite the protests of all, her farewells to her sister and her lover are touching in their sorrow. The burial scene is accented by dramatic lighting, harsh music, and sharp movement, proving that, for all its apparent leniency, Antigone’s sentence is still an execution. When Antigone hangs herself, Cottam portrays Haemon’s grief and subsequent suicide with aching physicality.
While the play bears Antigone’s name, Creon is arguably as important to the plot as Antigone. Mortensen is an interesting casting choice, and during the talkback after the show, Mesta confirmed that casting a woman as Creon was deliberate, as was the choice to cut Creon’s wife Eurydice from the story. While much of Antigone draws on the power men hold over women, casting Mortensen provides commentary on the woman-on-woman abuse that also occurs all too often. Mortensen has a strong stage presence that makes her hard to look away from, both when she raves about justice and the weaknesses of women and when she weeps over the fatal consequences of Creon’s choice to place civil justice over family.
The gods are displeased with Creon as well, and their message is brought to Creon by the prophet Teiresias (Thomas Jordan). Jordan’s part is entirely recorded; his warning that Polyneices should be buried immediately is played over the speakers in an echoing, repetitive reverb that is all the more unsettling for the actor’s youth. Jordan’s striking performance is slightly undermined by the obvious pausing of the recording, but Mortensen’s horror as Creon listens softens the effect.
In the show’s program notes, dramaturg and assistant stage manager Jacob Pierce says that Mesta drew inspiration for this production from Keats’s poem “Ode to a Grecian Urn.” This concept is mirrored in part by the actors’ striking poses reminiscent of Greek paintings when they are not participating in a scene. I was a little distracted when they changed poses from time to time, especially in moments of very high emotion, but as framing they worked well. The costumes are modern and interpretive, sometimes clashing with Sophocles’ high-brow dialogue, but as I said in the beginning, they are understated enough that the actors’ passionate performances are the most memorable part of this production.
This performance at the BYU Museum of Art by DAM Good Productions was a one-night-only event, but it serves as a reminder that even old stories can be performed with as much passion as they were when they were written. Antigone as a story has modern relevance to the conflict between family and personal beliefs, and I for one had a lot to think about when I walked out the door.
DAM Good Productions Presents Antigone by Sophocles
BYU Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Campus Dr., Provo, UT 84602
April 1, 2019, 7:00 PM
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