Antigones - A Play Performance
Antigone is one of the earliest Greek tragedies written by Sophocles. It deals with the issue of funeral rites to/the rights of the dead. Antigone, the heroine of the play, buries the dead body of her brother Polynices defying the King Creon's edict that no one should give Polynices a burial. She does not think twice even though the edict pronounces death to those who disobey it. Antigone's justification for her act of defiance is that dead bodies must not be politicised. Over the centuries, the Antigone motif had been repeatedly invoked by several playwrights through adaptations and retellings. These performances sustain the defiant voice of the Antigone for decent burial rites, the rights for the dead. In a way, the recurring performances of many versions of Antigone indicate that Antigone will appear whenever dead bodies are left unburied.
This production, Antigones, is a collage production of several versions of Antigone. It takes portions from Sophocles' version along with a few passages from Anouilh's French version and also McIntryre's version from Srilanka. Most importantly, these versions are all strung together through the dramatic template provided by Badal Sircar's Procession. The play will be multilingual (predominantly English, few lines in Tamil, Malayalam and other languages).
