Review: Antigone (Cold Basement Dramatics)

By Chicagotheaterbeat @chitheaterbeat

  
  
Antigone 

Adapted by Jack Bourgeois from Sophocles
Directed by Jack Bourgeois
at Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway (map)
thru Aug 19   |  tickets: $20   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
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1960s-based adaptation makes myth more matter-of-fact than mysterious

     

  

Cold Basement Dramatics presents

  

Antigone

Review by Lawrence Bommer

There’s good reason you won’t find the name Sophocles on the program. The plot arrives faithfully enough (but then Sophocles was borrowing as well)—but director Jack Bourgeois’ modern-dress adaptation talks entirely in the vernacular of 2012 A.D.. That directness makes the conflict between ardent rebel Antigone (here a feminist in the endless battle of new ideas against old fogies) and reactionary King Creon, her stepfather and the law-and-order tyrant of Thebes, into a debate – when it should be a clash.

So it’s hard to connect Antigone’s fanatical desire to have her brother buried so he can reach the afterlife (Polynices lost out in a civil war and now his corpse must be punished for its unsuccessful treason) and the outpouring o0f democracy that supposedly follows her martyrdom. Sophocles—and the Greek legend from which he drew–regarded this early Joan of Arc as the example of a lone individual confronting authority. Which should prevail—one person’s suicidal demand for posthumous justice for a beaten brother or Creon’s desire that the law be obeyed as it’s observed? It’s this battle between private passion and public power that will echo down the centuries.

Vaguely set in the 1960s, Bourgeois’ update turns an old play into new commentary on the power of the media to turn Antigones’ dogged martyrdom into a turning point for Theban populist reform. No subtleties are wasted in a family squabble that turns toxic with politics. Casey Wortmann plays this suddenly radicalized heiress with all-American pep, rather than the dangerously driven zeal that’s as much anarchy as democracy in the making.

Balancing the conflict, Bourgeois gives Scott Olson’s equally bellowing, old-school authoritarian Creon a case to make for gradualism in politics and for keeping this quarrel confined to the family (where it inevitably entraps a befuddled Josh Nordmark as Creon’s son, a case of collateral damage). Creon can’t seem weak so he can’t be wrong, So Antigone must be starved to death to create a warning to her growing cadre of determined followers. (Back then, with the media behind it, a cause could recruit even without Facebook or even Twitter.)

What this 5,000th (or so) adaptation of Antigone, gains in clarity and immediacy are countered by losses in grandeur and mystery. The adaptation tries to explain too much, and in a flat prose depressingly different from Sophocles’ soaring speeches. But for those who prefer their myths matter-of-fact and up-to-date, nothing will be lost in the translation.

  

Rating: ★★★

  

  

Antigone continues through August 19th at Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway (map), with performances Thursdays-Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, Sundays at 2pm.  Tickets are $10-$20, and are available online through BrownPaperTickets.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at ColdBasement.org.  (Running time: 90 minutes)

Photos by John Kelly 

     

artists

cast

Casey Wortmann (Antigone); Scott Olson (Creon); Josh Nordmark (Haemon); Meg Harkins (Ismene); Shawna Tucker (Eurydice); Nathan Pierson (Officer); Radu Vaduva (Koufax); Walls Trimble (Reporter)

behind the scenes

Jack Bourgeois (director, adaptor); Rachel Boylan (costumes); Paul Dieziel (asst. stage manager); Sam Hubbard (violence design); John Kelly (lighting, production manager); Katie Messmore (stage manager); Cassandra Rose (dramaturg); Daniel Ryan (sound design); Jeff Shields (props); Caroline Siede (asst. director); Liz Siedt (asst. dramaturg); Emily Stranski (set); John Kelly (photos)

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