antigone
by Sophocles
directed by William Addis
featuring Sarah Murphy as Antigone
When Sophocles wrote Antigone, in 442 BC, the story of the Theban girl who stood up to her king was already well known. Although it was written first, the play is the third and final installment of the Theban Plays, preceded by Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus.
In the earlier segments we learned of Oedipus, the Theban king, who unknowingly killed his father, and married his own mother. They had four children, two sons named Polyneices and Eteocles, and two daughters named Ismene and Antigone. Once the horror of the situation was revealed, Jocasta killed herself; Oedipus put out his own eyes and took Antigone, still a child, begging on the highways. It was decided that Oedipus’ sons would rule the kingdom in alternating years. The sons had angered their father however, and before his death he laid on their heads a curse that they would die by one another’s hand.
When Eteocles had ruled for a full year, he refused to yield up the throne to his brother. Polyneices became an exile, and returned with the support of seven nations. A war followed, the foreigners were defeated and Eteocles and Polyneices died on each other’s swords, fulfilling their father’s prophecy. Creon, Jocasta’s brother, became king of Thebes. This is where our play begins.
--William Addis, director
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Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
Where the soul lies down in the grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
Doesn’t make any sense.
-Rumi
She said, "I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite."
Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I've watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
"And who are you?" she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
"Why, I'm fire," he replied,
”And I love your solitude, I love your pride.”
”Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,”
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
-Leonard Cohen, “Joan of Arc”
“I’m breathing… Are you breathing too? It’s nice, isn’t it? It isn’t difficult to keep alive, friends- just don’t make trouble-or if you must make trouble, make the sort of trouble that’s expected. Well, I don’t need to tell you that.”
-Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone.
The blood began to dry.
The smell began to rise.
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of mud and bone.
Your blood began to dry.
The smell began to rise.
We've got God on our side.
We're just trying to survive.
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love?
Fear's a powerful thing.
It'll turn your heart black you can trust.
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust.
-Bruce Springsteen, “Devils and Dust”
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
-Katharine Lee Bates and Samuel Ward, “America the Beautiful”
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
Where the soul lies down in the grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
Doesn’t make any sense.
-Rumi
She said, "I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite."
Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I've watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
"And who are you?" she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
"Why, I'm fire," he replied,
”And I love your solitude, I love your pride.”
”Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,”
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
-Leonard Cohen, “Joan of Arc”
“I’m breathing… Are you breathing too? It’s nice, isn’t it? It isn’t difficult to keep alive, friends- just don’t make trouble-or if you must make trouble, make the sort of trouble that’s expected. Well, I don’t need to tell you that.”
-Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone.
The blood began to dry.
The smell began to rise.
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of mud and bone.
Your blood began to dry.
The smell began to rise.
We've got God on our side.
We're just trying to survive.
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love?
Fear's a powerful thing.
It'll turn your heart black you can trust.
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust.
-Bruce Springsteen, “Devils and Dust”
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
-Katharine Lee Bates and Samuel Ward, “America the Beautiful”
