Antigone
Adapted by Lewis Galantiere
From the play by Jean Anouilh
Directed by Mickey Handwerger
With Bryan Barrett, Nick Beschen, Jamie Hanna, Hallie Garrison, Frank B. Moorman, Josh Riffle, Theresa Riffle, Robby Rose, Becki Placella, Donna Soraparu
February 29 - March 9, 2008



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.

REVIEWS

Dignity Players' Antigone
By Jane Elkin/Bay Times Weekly
March 5, 2008

You'll see some extraordinary acting in Dignity Players' showdown between Frank B. Moorman and Hallie Garrison.

You'll also see the uncanny power of a play that has survived for 2400 years. Greek playwright Sophocles' understanding of human nature was so keen that new generations continue to find it illuminating. In 1944, French playwright Jean Anouihl adapted to his times, echoing the French resistance against Nazi occupation. Now Dignity Players opens a theatre season devoted to women's history with Lewis Galantiere's transaltion of Anouihl's Antigone.

Antigone, played by Garrison, is a young woman who defies authority to do what she thinks right. Authority is Moorman's Creon, her uncle and father of her fiance, Haemon (Jamie Hanna). Her defiance demands her execution.

From the moment we fist see the cast in freeze-frame motif 10 minutes before the show begins, we know them. There is no mistaking Creon: authoritative, threatening and cool. Antigone: solemn and calm, her eyes bespeaking troubled thoguhts. Haemon: youthfully optimistic and confident.

Their story is one more link in the cray chain of events that makes up the Oedipus saga.

Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus, formerly the king of Thebes. Opportunist Creon seeks to "impose order on this absurd little kingdom" after his two nephews, Polynices and Eteocles, kill each other in a civil war. His edict forbidding the burial of the rebel Polynices, Antigone's borther, is more than she bear, though it poses no burden to their sister Ismene (Becki Placella). Ironically, only Ismene and Creon will regret their choices.

Creon tries to overlook Antigone's defiance because she is betrothed to his son. But when she refuses his proffered alibi, he orders her arrest by abusive guardsmen (Josh Riffle, Robby Rose and Nick Beschen).

Haemon curses his father and chooses death with Antigone. When Queen Eurydice (Donna Soraparu) learns of her son's suicide, she takes her own life. Creon's legacy is his miserable solitude. His best argument for Antigone's compliance, that "life is nothing more than the happiness we get out of it," will forever resound in his memory of missteps on the road to power.

The ensemble as a whole delivers a solid interpretation. Garrison and Hanna give fine performances. Moorman, however, is so remarkable I cannot imagine any star I'd rather see in this role. He channels his character.

Dozens of luminaria light the stage to nice effect, and I liked the togas featuring subtle variations of color and decoration to indicate wealth and rank.

Best of all, though, are Moorman's performance and the superb writing.

Classic Dysfunction
By Mary Johnson/The Baltimore Sun
March 5, 2008

How can the saga of history's most dysfunctional family, written by Sophocles in 440 BC, remain relevant today?

Dignity Players tackles this question with a poetic adaptation by Lewis Galantiere of Jean Anouilh's 1943 update of Antigone, written during the Nazi occupation of France. The drama's focus on choices between political compromise and the idealisim of the French reistance made Anouilh one of the world's major post-war plawrights.

In his director's notes, Mickey Handwerger asserted, "It is impossible not to find relevance 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 to open its 2008 season. We hear news everyday of genocide in places Darfur and of ethnic cleansing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan."

Antigone is one of the four children of King Oedipus, who was fated to murder his father and marry his mother and gouge out his eyes for these heinous deeds. Antigone later accompanies him into exile.

As the drama begins both of her brothers have died in a battle and her uncle, King Creon, has decided to give Eteocles a hero's funeral while condemning Ploynices to be left unburied as carrion for scavengers. King Creon decrees that anyone attempting to bury Polynices will be executed.

Knowing she'll paly the ultimate price, Antigone chooses to bury her borther. After she is brought as a prisoner before Creon, he tries to persuade her to collaborate in covering up her crime, and Antigone refuses. She also turns away from Creon's son Haemon, who planned to marry her, and chooses martyrdom out fo respect for all human life.

Visitor's to Dignity's theater at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Annapolis will immediately confront Handwerger's artistic vision in an on-stage tableau that creates a powerful opening. Nine actors are assembles much like Greek statues, welcoming us to where civilization began. Dramatically lit by luminaries, the Grecian-costumed actors remain immobile for 15 minutes, seemingly transfixed by the enormity of the drama to follow.

When actor Bryan Barrett, serving as a one-man Greek chorus, begins to tell the story of Haemon's love for Antigone, we are transported back to ancient Thebes, and Haemon begins to dance with Antigone's sister Ismene to bring the story to vivid life.

As Antigone, 16-year-old Hallie Garrison commands the stage before the play begins as she sits motionless, seeming to gaze into her future. Garrison captures Antigone's courage, willfulness and idealisim her joy "to be the first ou of bed" to greet the world, her girlish vulnerability, her love for Haemon, and he devotion to her nurse and her sister. Garrison's Antigone shines with a passionate idealism that is at the core of her steely determination to bury her brother.

In sharp contrast and equally strong is Frank B. Moorman as Creon, a complext character who tries to save Thebes by maintaining an unyielding dedication to the status quo despite its political corruptness. Moorman conveys Creon's middle-aged rationality as he argues against Antigone's youthful admiration of her brothers and his mounting frustration that eventually turns to anger as he confronts the inevitability of Antigone's fate - and his son's.

As Ismene, Becki Placella portrays a kind of everywoman content to be beautiful and accept a secondary role in a male world. Placella's Ismene conveys her ambivalence distilled from fear at supporting her sister in the ritualistic burial of their brother, and her preference for accepting compromise.

Jamie Hanna as Haemon conveys his devotion to Antigone, acceding to her request to remain silent on hearing the news that they can never marry. Hanna is powerful and vulnerable as he denounces his father. A fight choreographer, Hanna masterfully portrays Haemon's anger at Creon.