
Antigone, Jean Anouilh,
Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2016, REX Theatre/Kotopouli Stage, Summer tour in open theaters
SYNOPSIS
A key work in the contemporary theatre repertoire,
written in 1942 during the idiosyncratic Nazi occupation of France, Anouilh’s Antigone is a metaphor for the individual and their struggle against an all-powerful, aged, autocratic state. Youth and old age, beauty and ugliness, power and weakness, justice and injustice are juxtaposed to reveal a fearful society awash with corruption and self-interest, a society back at square one.
In this shipwreck of a state in which the stench of Polynices’ corpse is used to bring the citizens into line, in which the dead are interchangeable, in which the “truth is what we do not tell”, Creon arrives as a saviour, says ‘yes’ to power and sets about “ruling people” as its humble servant. Antigone, herself the child of a sick society, rebels with the instinct of youth and buries her dead brother, saying ‘no’ to the “costly, dirty hope” on which power relies.
In the end, alongside a Guard who has denied his very humanity, she falls apart—she no longer knows why she is dying. Unrepentant, Creon will continue to rule the state, the Guards will continue to drink and play cards. A modern old people’s home, a society which is waiting to die, a song that sings of heroic Eteocles and the voice of Antigone echoing through eternity, illuminating a different aspect of the tragic each time.
ARTISTS
Translation: Stratis Paschalis
Direction-Music: Helen Efthimiou
Set Designer: Zoe Molyvda-Fameli
Costume Designer: Ilenia Douladiri
Lighting Designer: Sakis Birbilis
Orchestrations-Sound Designer: Kostas Vomvolos
Movement: Vitoria Kotsalou, Kiki Baka
Dramaturgy: Sofia Eftychiadou
Assistant Director: Marianthi Grammatikou
Assistants to the Set Designer: Dido Gogou, Panagiotis Lambis
Make-up: Sissi Petropoulou
Production Co-ordinator: Denia Safari
CAST
Antigone: Vasiliki Troufakou
Creon: Stelios Mainas
Chorus: Phaedon Kastris
Nurse: Aneza Papadopoulou
Ismene: Ioanna Mavrea
Haemon: Giorgos Fridzilas
1st Guard: Nikos Dallas
2nd Guard, Messenger: Errikos Litsis
Creon’s Servant: Errikos Miliaris
Eurydice: Mary Liami









VIDEO TRAILER FROM THE REHEARSALS
REVIEWS
By Leandros Polenakis: http://www.avgi.gr/article/10971/7327419/e-krisime-diaphora
By Nectarios-Georgios Konstantinidis:
At Théâtre du Blog:
http://theatredublog.unblog.fr/2016/08/01/antigone-de-jean-anouilh/
By Stella Charami: http://tospirto.net/theater/ive_seen/27167
By Stereos Poulere: http://www.toratora.gr/305345-2-antigoni-tou-anouille-i-troufakou-mas-afise-me-stoma-anoihto/
By Vicky Diamanti: http://www.theatrikaprogrammata.gr/αντιγόνη-του-ζαν-ανουίγ-κριτική-της/
By Eirini Aivaliotou: http://www.catisart.gr/index.php/2010-03-28-10-49-51/4498-antigone
By Stasinopoulou P: http://www.kulturosupa.gr/index.php/greece/antigoni-attiki-15368/#.WAOzE1dnWYU