Reprinted from Fairbanks News-Miner
‘Antigone’ finds new life in Fairbanks Shakepeare Theatre’s post-apocalyptic future
by Glenn Burnsilver / gburnsilver@newsminer.com
FAIRBANKS – When one of the world’s oldest plays finds a new time zone in a post-apocalyptic future, one where the history of the Kennedy family is the basis for a new society, well, expect a lot of surprises.
But, then again, there is an amazing amount of similarity between “Antigone,” written in approximately 422 B.C. by the Greek playwright Sophocles, and the updated version penned by Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director Anne Thibault.
Thibault’s title is “Antigone, or I really wish you hadn’t done that.”
Both stories overlap in some of the major plot points, but it’s the nuances and unexpected inclusions that set the two apart.
Here’s the basic premise: Two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, fight on opposing sides in Thebes’ civil war. Both are killed and Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, declares that Eteocles, who fought for him, shall be buried, while Polyneices must be left unburied as carrion for vultures.
Undaunted, the play’s title character and heroine buries her brother despite Creon’s vow to have her killed for doing so. Ironically, she was to marry Creon’s son, Haemon, who is very much the opposite of his father.
For additional background, Antigone is the incestuous daughter of King Oedipus and his mother Jocasta. This action brings the family a curse, which is partly responsible for the brothers’ deaths and Antigone’s problems.
Thibault’s play works within this context, albeit with many liberties.
“So we have taken that basic story of a girl on a mission and set it in 2020,” Thibault explained. “We sort of posited: ‘What would have happened had the Cuban missile crisis gone wrong and the world was destroyed and there were only a few people left?’ Oedipus’ family is the one that sort of rises from the ashes and creates this new world.
“So we’re paralleling the curse of the Oedipus family with the Kennedy family,” she added. “We sort of explore the two families.”
The modern setting is called New Thebes, but it remains forever a place in crisis where the Oedipus family builds upon the remnants found after the apocalypse.
“One of the things they call the Book of the Gods, but it’s a book about the Kennedys. So they’ve modeled their new society after the Kennedys and that idea of Camelot,” Thibault said.
Rosemary Kennedy, who replaces the blind prophet Teiresias as something of an oracle, warns Creon that his persistence to destroy Antigone will be his downfall and that of the new society.
“So, we go through the stories of the Kennedys and the tragedy that has followed them around,” and how it compares with Oedipus, Creon and their families, she said.
“That sounds terrible and tragic and awful, but it’s actually pretty funny,” Thibault added.
Thibault, who added that the play has an all-female cast, began formulating the idea for this production shortly after 9/11 when she performed as Rosemary Kennedy in “Women and Criminals.” It helped that she also grew up Catholic with a picture of John F. Kennedy in the kitchen.
“I started thinking about this curse once he (Joe Kennedy) sacrificed that child,” she said, referring to Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy.
“I thought: ‘What if that curse didn’t just affect that family but the world and everything had gone wrong?’ Then, 60 years later, we’d have this brand new world.”
While it seems easy to root for Antigone, Thibault points out the play is not that cut and dry. It isn’t the story of good versus evil because Creon thinks everything he’s doing is for Thebes, even when he says, “The people need us to look out for terrorists and traitors,” which he considers Antigone to be. Antigone, on the other hand, is not exactly Joan of Arc. Though she may believe that everything she’s doing is right, in the end it’s not worth all the sacrifices to family and loved ones. “She’s on the side of right,” Thibault said, “but she doesn’t necessarily do everything correctly and balance that.”
Worth noting is the stage setting for New Thebes: a landscape torn open by missile strikes, with Doric columns streaking upward and modern furnishings scattered about.
“If the world split open … you know how they say half of Rome is still underground?” Thibault ponders. “Well, I had this idea that ‘60s indestructible furniture — we have an avocado green desk — are mixed with this 490 B.C. architecture.”
Thibault paused, and then laughed. “I’m hoping people will be willing to go along for the ride.”
It should be a wild one.
Contact features editor Glenn BurnSilver at 459- 7510.
IF YOU GO
What: Antigone, or I really wish you hadn’t done that
When: 7:30 p.m.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through April 25
Where: Empress Theatre
Tickets: $20, $15 students, military and seniors, free under 18 students on Thursdays only
Information: www.fstalaska.org
