Productions

What is really worth dying for?
A brother? A principle? A god? A nation?

Antigone wants to bury her brother.

Her uncle, Creon, fears war if he allows it.

Owen McCafferty’s powerful adaptation of Sophocles’ classic questions whether there can really be a winner when two intractable wills collide.

August 17-22, 8:15pm
Quaker Meeting House (Venue 40)
Tickets £8/£6


Cast:
Antigone - Karen Whytock
Ismene, her sister - Hilary Davies
Creon - Jacques Kerr
Eurydice, Creon's wife - Lorraine McCann
Haemon, Creon's son - Neil Colquhoun
Old Man - Jo Butt
Tiresias - Jon Davey
Guard/Messenger - Ross Hope
Young Page - Miriam Thomson
Soldiers - Jessica Brodie, Gillian Massie, Heather Nicolson and Larry Weil


Crew:
Set Design and Construction - Andy Ellis
Lighting Design - Bruce Wood
Costume Design - Susan Wales and Margaret Marr
Properties - Mary Orman

General Manager - David Grimes
Production Finance Manager - Jo Butt
Press and Marketing - Ross Hope
Publicity Design - Lorraine McCann
Photographer - Jon Davey
Rehearsal Prompt - Gillian Massie
Chaperone - Siobhan McGovern
Military Consultant - Heather Nicholson


With Thanks to the following organizations and individuals who have helped with the loan of costumes, properties, equipment or who have helped in other ways: Edinburgh University Graduate Association, Quaker Meeting House, Sid Morgan, Fiona Arnott and Leith Army Stores.


Visit the Antigone microsite.


Edinburgh Evening News
Strong performances in unsettling tale of conflict
Thursday, 27 August 2009
By Tom Dibdin

Antigone ****
Quaker Meeting House

STARK in its outlook and sparce in its staging, the Grads production of Owen McCafferty's modern version of the great Greek tragedy of Antigone remains true to the feeling of Sophocles' original.

This is powerful and unsettling stuff. It unfolds with deliberate attention to detail as the body bags pile up on stage and the deaths of all who Antigone holds dear become ever more inevitable.

It is set in the immediate aftermath of the Theban civil war - started by Antigone's two brothers who headed the rival factions. The new king, Creon, is a military man who claims the throne by dint of marriage after the brothers killed each other in the final act of the war.

One brother is to be buried with full honour, the other left in the sun to rot.

In the role of Antigone, Karen Whytock brings a shrill wee girl full of outrage to the stage. Religious law demands that a body be buried before its soul can move forward into the afterlife and she is in full-on revolt at Creon's slight to her royal blood.

Jaques Kerr's Creon is equally determined that his decision is obeyed - whether it is right or not. Kerr's is just one of several beautifully worked performances as he takes Creon into the realms of madness, depicting an ultimately weak ruler, bolstered by the sound of his own voice.

Greek tragedy demands a chorus to give a voice to the common person. Jo Butt takes on the tricky role, an old man who's job is to gather the dead of the war - as he looks in each body bag for his own son.

Butt conveys one with the knowledge and humility to advise kings - and he holds the stage without dominating it.

Around these key roles, director Claire Wood brings strong performances from the supporting cast. Whether they are simply standing around on guard duty, bringing news that Creon will not want to hear or trying to reason with Antigone, there are never any detracting voices. Which, with a very plain but subtly nuanced design, allows the play and McCafferty's excellent treatment of the language to speak out strong.

This might be set in ancient Greece and updated by a Northern Irish playwright, but the power of this production is that it is particular to neither. Rather, it speaks of all the conflicts inflicted by those with intractable views on the people around them.

Run ended.