Utsav Patel Play Analysis Professor Mahala October 27, 2011

Play Analysis: Antigone

Antigone, originally written by Sophocles has been performed throughout history to illustrate its rich diversity of themes. Gary Armagnacs rendition portrays this as well as the fact that it is a timeless play because he sets it in the near future in a societythat has just gone through a second civil warthat bears close resemblance to ours. The director, when creating this play, has heavy influence from the current ongoing political movements occurring in the Middle East and North Africa, especially womens role in the whole movement. Hence, he focuses mainly on how women are able to support political movements such as the ones going on at this moment through their acts of civil disobedience and political discord towards a tyrannical government that refuses to listen. The whole crew was in line with the Directors concept and was able to create a play that illuminated his concept of having a contemporary Antigone. The actors, the scene designer, the light designer and the costume designer all did an amazing job of making this play flawless. Overall, these are the people that gave life to Gary Armagnacs contemporary rendition of the timeless play Antigone. The actors did an outstanding job with the acting in the play. They all seemed like they had a few years of acting experience; however, it was to my surprise that the main actor, Kunnal DuggalCreonwas acting for the first time. He was able to do an amazing job with his character and was able to portray his emotions perfectly to the audience because I remember during his speech I actually felt like I hated him due to his ignorant remarks and obvious favoritism of Eteocles over Polyneices. He had a powerful voice with a tone that really showed what a stern tyrannical government is like, especially when he would yell at Antigone (Ashley Bonda). His strong tone not only portrayed his character well but also illustrated that he knew

what type of tone was required of a character of his demeanor, which furthermore strengthens his case for an outstanding actor. Ashley Bonda, as well did a stupendous job of acting as Antigone. She had a very assertive tone that depicted that she was an independent woman and was not scared of going against her government for what she believed in. She was stern in her confrontations with Creon, yet she had a soft and caring tone when she was taking about the conditions of her dead brother Polyneices. Her ability to diversify her tone shows that she is an astounding actor; moreover it depicts that shes an independent woman because she has the soft and caring characteristics of a woman as well as the sternness and assertiveness of an independent person. There was one particular character that stood out, the messenger. This stood out because in the play it is a man doing this role; however in the play the director decided to use a woman to play this role, and this I think was the directors way of adding a comic relief, in a rather serious play. The actor that played this role was able to perform this role well because she knew she had to act as if she was a man, and was able to pull of this rather funny role without ever laughing at her own role. This shows that she is able to hold herself up as a performer when it comes to the serious business. Overall, I believe it is that actors did an amazing job because without their astonishing acting this play would become very boring. Randall Enlow, the set designer really had his creative juices flowing with the amazing set design that he came up with. It was perfect in the sense that it had both a contemporary touch as well as little Greek to it. The columns were the main thing that connected it to the past, and the fact that some of the columns had broken down and fell over illustrates that fact that the great empire has gone down. The contemporary part of the set design was practically everything else. The main thing that stood out was the Oedipus statue directly in the center of the stage and it was elevated to the highest place possible on the stage. This meant it held great importance, and it did because it symbolized the way the government was run by Creon: blindly. The statue was of

Oedipus seemed to have a gloomy lingering feeling to it, which foreshadowed what was soon to follow in the play after Creons stubborn and tyrannical governing would lose him his whole family. Also the set had a steps on it and according to the set designer the stairs allow the characters different elevations on which to stand, which ultimately represent[ed] certain characters authority. This was quite evident throughout the play because Antigone, Ismene and the chorus were considered to be at the lowest status level and were at the bottom of the stairs whenever they acted. Meanwhile, the soldiers were always a step above the fore stated people however they were lower than Creon, his assistant and his wife, who were almost always at the top of the stairs overlooking the rest of the stage. Overall the set stupendously complemented the directors contemporary theme. The light designer was like that one piece of the jigsaw puzzle without which the play would be incomplete. Christina McCollam-Martinez quite literally gave life to this play through the lighting that she provided. She did her job perfectly as she stated: a lighting designer is to establish the mood and atmosphere of the play and she is able to do this very subtly which makes that much better. Her goal was to help tell the story through the lighting meaning that when there was turmoil going on in the lighting would be such that the audience would feel that way, and as I recall, she was able to do this perfectly. The scene where Antigone finally tells Creon that she is the one that has buried her brother and he gets angry at her, the lights subtly to a dim yet reddish hue which shows anger and it made me feel as if there was tension in the scene as well. Another example was the helicopter lights at the beginning of the play which I thought was an amazing because of how realistic it seemed. Overall, the lighting was done perfectly to supplement the feelings that were to be portrayed during the play. Finally, the costume designer was the finishing touch to complement this contemporary play. Cathy McClellan literally made this play contemporary with her style of clothing which is

slightly ahead of the fall 2011 fashion; this is the most important characteristic of connecting it to the present. There is a diverse use of color to describe the actors as well as what the audience should be feeling about the actors. The royal family as well as the military has purple in their clothing to show their status as well the loyalty of the soldiers to the royal family. Creon wears a neutral gray suit so the audience can in the beginning detest him; however towards the end sympathize for him. The neutrality of gray allows for these mixed feelings towards Creon. The Chorus is dressed in shades of red white and blue to show their patriotism towards their country. Antigone is dressed in a defying and rebellious black dress which illustrated her anger and that she was in mourning for her brother. Ismenes costume really depicted change throughout the play because at first she was wore a dress that made her seem innocent. However as the play progressed and she became to gain the qualities of her sister her outfit changed to something that was similar to Antigones. Overall the use of ties, the heels, dresses and everything else gave this play the contemporary touch that was evident at first sight hence fulfilling the directors vision. Overall the performed play and the written play followed the same plot and had the same characters with the same lines; the only difference was the directors vision. This vision of a contemporary Antigone was portrayed really well with the help of the actors as well as the people behind the scenes which truly made it a great performance to watch. I learned that actors make a play good, however its the people behind the scenes that make it outstanding and Antigone was a perfect example of it.