On Stage: Performing Arts at our Oneonta Campuses by Rachel Frick Cardelle
Drama, Politics and Intrigue in 'Antigone'
Do you love a show about some super messy family drama that plays itself out with politics and intrigue? Like a good debate about when it is one’s duty to abide by society’s rules and when one should rebel against authority? Want to contemplate the role of women in society? Hartwick College’s presentation of “Antigone” provides the opportunity for you to enjoy all of this. Originally written by Sophocles in 441 BCE and adapted by Don Taylor in 1986, Hartwick’s “Antigone,” directed by Marc Shaw, offers an updated version of this ancient Greek play about loyalty, the law, and the consequences of defying authority. Oh, and did I mention the family drama?
Sophocles wrote “Antigone” as the continuation of a story he started in two previous plays, “Oedipus Rex” and “Oedipus at Colonus.” Since Antigone is not the first of the three plays about the city of Thebes, let me quickly catch you up on all the drama that happens in the first two plays. This is where the family drama comes in, because the plays focus on Oedipus, the king of Thebes, and the curse under which his family lives.
Before “Antigone” begins, Oedipus has unwittingly killed his own father (major guilt), married his mother (gross), blinded himself (ouch), and gone into exile (reasonable decision, sort of a self-impeachment), leaving behind his two sons and two daughters (yes, from his marriage to his mother). The two sons decide to take turns being king of Thebes, agreeing each of them will rule in alternating years. Of course, anyone who has a sibling will tell you that such an arrangement is bound to cause some friction at the family holiday gatherings. Sure enough, after the first year the son who is king, Eteocles, tells the son who would be king, Polynices, that he has changed his mind and thinks he’ll just stay on as king. Not surprisingly, Polynices does not take well to this announcement, raises an army and goes to war against Eteocles. (Oh, don’t look so shocked…who amongst us in our youth hasn’t waged a small war against a beloved family member?) As is inevitable in a good Greek family drama, the brothers end up facing one another on the battlefield, where they kill each other.
