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It’s a tragedy, but not as we know it

Hanan Snir’s contemporary version of Sophocles’ Antigone will be staged this weekend at Taipei’s National Theater PHOTO: COURTESY OF NTCH

A contemporary version of Sophocles’ Antigone will be staged tomorrow and Sunday as part of the International Theater festival at Taipei’s National Theater.

Hanan Snir, the production’s director, uses a modern translation of the Greek original that he has altered slightly to suit contemporary audiences. The dialogue is in Modern Hebrew with Chinese subtitles.

“It was important … to me that the play be accessible to present-day audiences, that it evoke interest and excitement in the audience,” he said in an interview with Israeli dramaturge Rivka Meshulach published in the festival’s press kit.

“At the same time, [I don’t] make any attempt to spoon-feed the audience with respect to the play’s central themes and the songs of the chorus, which employs poetic language,” he said.

Snir says that nothing from the original story was omitted and that in certain areas he expanded upon and explained certain mythological concepts and subjects.

He has even added a prologue that presents the myth of Oedipus, which provides the necessary context for events unfolding on stage.

Performance notes What: Antigone Where: National Theater, Taipei City When: Tomorrow at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm Tickets: NT$500 to NT$2,000 and are available through NTCH ticketing

The original Greek tragedy was written 2,500 years ago and is set in Thebes after Oedipus the King banishes himself and leaves the throne to his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, decreeing that they are to rule on alternate years.

Eteocles, however, refuses to relinquish power to his brother, causing a civil war. Both brothers are killed in the ensuing conflict and a new king, Creon, assumes the throne.

Creon issues a decree stating that Polynices is not to be given proper funeral rites because he fought against Thebes. Eteocles, however, is buried with full military honors.

Antigone, the sister of the slain brothers, views Creon’s actions as against the will of the gods and begins the process of burying Polynices. Creon’s men catch Antigone attempting to bury her brother and send her before the king, who condemns her to death.

Creon’s refusal to listen to the advice of those around him results in more violence — a theme that Snir feels contemporary audiences can identify with.

“The human tendency to become entrenched in a particular position without listening to the other side, without empathy towards the other, always leads to destruction and ruin,” he said.
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