For my program notes assignment I chose to do Antigone Now by Melissa Cooper. Beginning my image search for the production, I found that all the images I was gravitating towards were of past and current wars, natural disasters, or political crises. Reading the translation of Sophocles’ Antigone, the nature of the war is explained by the chorus in relation to the greek Gods. It is epic in nature, metaphorical, and figurative. I am still disturbed by this imagery and get a clear picture of how desperate the city is. However, There’s a certain modern sensibility about brutality and the desolation of war that the translated language doesn’t inspire in me. When the majority of the play happens within the Theban palace, it’s easy for me to forget that Thebes has been leveled by war, and what it must be like for Antigone to be in what once was her home, now destroyed.
Melissa Cooper’s adaptation Antigone Now, gives me a visceral picture of the world of this play through her language. Some quotes I thought were particularly effective include:
“CHORUS. I heard she was out again last night. After curfew. Running through the forbidden zones. Digging through bodies. Crazy girl….City’s been starving and burning so long, we don’t care who wins. We just want to be able to sleep at night.”
“ANTIGONE. I saw our brothers, dead in the street. Their arms and legs were all tangled together, like when they were little and they used to wrestle. Except the blood is real, and they don’t get up…Poor body, poor brother. Holes in his chest, Ismene, and the birds are so hungry. After the soldier’s left, I threw stones at the buzzards, but they wouldn’t leave. On my way home, I passed starving dogs, rooting for food. They’ll find him soon-”
“ANTIGONE. I hear people wailing. They’re rooting through the bodies piled high in the streets. This one is mine: see the mole on his cheek?…This is my cousin. This is my friend. This is my lover. This is my son. This is my brother.”
“ANTIGONE. I know I will die, of course I’ll die. So what if you make me die a little sooner? You think death is a threat? Everyone I love is dead, and I burn all the time. Why should I be scared to die? No, what scared me was seeing my brother rot naked in the sun. I saw him. The dogs pulled the skin off his stomach. Of course, I buried him. You think I’m a fool for doing it, fine. Maybe that’s the opinion of a fool.”
I’m gravitated towards this version of Antigone because it asks me to see what is outside the palace, it is universal to wars across the world, it could happen anywhere. It felt right to me to focus on the reality of the world in which this story takes place, rather than the metaphorical, philosophical world of Ancient Greece. Melissa Cooper turns Antigone into a modern story of a war torn city, and it hits me in my gut because I understand it through her characters.
