Greek tragedy is raw. It asks existential questions: Who and what am I? What does my family history say about me, and about every cell in my body? How do personal choices affect my family relationships? How do family relationships affect society and civilization? Are there higher powers, gods who dictate our destiny as individuals and as a community?

Antigone is known for her fierce and courageous defiance of man-made laws in defense of natural law or the law of the gods. She is the gadfly that brings down a whole family and city. But she is also the daughter of involuntary incest, the niece and grand-niece of the new leader of the city, Creon; the sister of the captain of the enemy assaulting her home, the city of Thebes, and the sister of the man who led her city’s defense. Her identity as the offspring of incest crushes her and makes her desperate to salvage any honor her siblings might still have. If they have lived in shame their whole lives, at least they will die honored with the rites that the god Hades demands.

Who is Antigone? Is she a god-like figure who, while fulfilling what is her sole mission in life, destroys all else? Or is she the loving and courageous sister who offers her life for her brother’s dignified burial? Is her tragedy as fatalistic and personal as King Creon’s?

This production of Antigone asks these questions. The raw rhythms of the tragedy are felt in the percussion instrumentation and choreography of the Chorus of Elders. Antigone’s agonized isolation is felt in the masks worn by the chorus, who cannot understand her, her motives, or her brokenness.

—Peggy Garvey, Associate Artistic Director