Outline your set design for Antigone and say how it would help a
present day audience to understand the play's themes and atmosphere.
For the set design of Antigone, I need to think about how everything
links together to provide a complete picture, interacting the actors
with set, colour & scale.
If I was designing the set for a performance this play at college, I
would have it performed in the theatre studio in Notre Dame college,
it is a linear square space approximately 8metres x 8metres. The key
themes being communicated in this play are those of power, arrogance,
love, war, pride & family values.
As we know, the pretext of the play is the aftermath of a war, so I
feel that a backdrop of the aftermath of World War I would be
appropriate as the context will be the feuding East European countries
feuding. The backdrop will be that of the trenches after World War I
and this will be constantly there to underline the message that it is
a post war society. When this point needs emphasising, it will be lit;
such at time could be the opening chorus on lines 100-148. This will
provide the military-like atmosphere along with the chorus dressed in
military uniforms, again to emphasise the point, it would be a very
cheerful yet controlled atmosphere that I would want to create.
I would use purple in this production to show importance, I would also
have Creon dressed in a formal military 5-star General's uniform made
from purple fabric, purple is also a colour of royalty, as we know, in
the play Creon is king, in the performance, he is a General in context
but still a king, the uniform will tell the audience of his
superiority above his associates, but the purple should give them the
idea that he is of a royal background. There will be two purple drapes
hanging from each side upstage, these are there to symbolise the
authority of Creon as they are 6-7 feet in width and are draped from
the ceiling to the ground. These would be quite enclosing imposing and
so are a constant reminder that Creon is ruler and makes anyone stood
next to it look fairly insignificant which is its purpose. At the
beginning, when Antigone is arguing with Ismene whether to bury
Polynecies, Antigone will be stood upstage centre in full view
expressing herself, whereas Ismene will be stood upstage left next to
one of the drapes, this will signify Creon's...
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...t his power and ego
is not infallible, only his arrogance is.
The costume is of a military nature as I have already described, but
for Haemon and Antigone, it will be much more youthful to start, but
as the performance goes on, their costume will change as their
attitudes change; thus, after Antigone has buried her brother, she
will be much more sombre, wearing black (line 441) to symbolise the
respect for her brother. Similarly for Haemon when he talks to his
father after Antigone has been condemned, he would be wearing all
black to symbolise sadness but with a red sash across his waist to
show anger towards his father (line 633). Also when the chorus climb
the blocks for the final verse, they will now have luxurious velvet
purple uniforms, again to show a change in power, Creon is now dirty
from rolling on the ground, they stand above him.
For this set design. I used the Craig idea of Unified Stage Picture,
taking into account all aspects of the set, the Overall Design
Concept; everything has a use and is interwoven with the context of
the text, the interaction with the set by actors, the moving of the
rubble. This all adds together to provide Total Theatre.
At the onset of the play, the readers are warned that the characters are real and the stories they relate are true. The play is a creative fusion of modern journalism and drama. (Sinéad 2012).The play is a visceral historical documentation of the Syrian Revolution. The play starts with a recitation of a poem entitled: “Another Martyr Rises” by Omar Al Khani –a Syrian Revolution Coordinators’ Union Secretary General. This is followed by information about the Finborough Theatre cast and projects and the resume of actors and their roles in the play.The play is divided into two acts: Act I from page 25-53; Act II is from 54-85. There are 21scene...
shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what
about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes
the main theme of the play. With out this scene in the play I don’t
In the centre third of the screen I would have projected an image of a
This whole story is based around the horrors and actions which take place during war, and we therefore get involved in the scenery of war and become very familiar of what the characters must feel.
meanings along with what is going on in the plot of the play, it is
Thebes was invaded by Oedipus’ son, Polynices, and his followers. As Oedipus predicted in the previous play, Polynices and his brother, Eteocles, killed each other during battle. Creon, the king of Thebes, ruled that Eteocles should have a proper burial with honors and Polynices, the invader, be left unburied to rot.
In the story of Antigone, Oedipus has already died, his two sons. Polyneices and Eteocles, left to contend for the throne of Thebes. In their contention for the throne, the two brothers slay one another, leaving Creon once again to be the acting regent of Thebes. With this power, Creon declares that Polyneices must be left to rot on the battlefield, the highest disgrace to any Greek. Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, is left torn between state of family, and in the end, chooses family over state. Disregarding Creon 's edict with grave danger to herself, Antigone ventures to bury the body of Polyneices, and thus begins her adventure. Antigone is truly a tragic hero, marked by her station as son of Oedipus, and her proud and perhaps arrogant
correlates to the condition of society during the fifties, and conveys a momentous idea that the people living during this time should have faith in God and hope for the betterment of society in times of hardships, and should not focus on the injustice in the world. First, the reference to the death of millions of innocent people in the bombings of London, Hiroshima, and Dresden outrightly relates to the suffering that people have experienced both during and after the war, because many people innocent perished in WWII for no reason. In addition, David’s death also parallels to the post-WWII era, and relates to J.B. and Sarah’s responses to his death to the pain and devastation that families suffered when their young children who served as soldiers died in World War II. J.B. and Sarah’s discussion during their Thanksgiving meal is yet another parallel to the postwar era and portrays the two different outlooks that people had on life after the war. Finally, MacLeish uses J.B. to relate to the people living during the postwar era by concluding the play with J.B. and Sarah finding comfort in love and rebuilding their life together as a family to convey the message that they should try to alleviate their hardships and sorrow by viewing the situation optimistically and by seeking love in the
When the war breaks out, this tranquil little town seems like the last place on earth that could produce a team of vicious, violent soldiers. Soon we see Jim thrown into a completely contrasting `world', full of violence and fighting, and the strong dissimilarity between his hometown and this new war-stricken country is emphasised. The fact that the original setting is so diversely opposite to that if the war setting, the harsh reality of the horror of war is demonstrated.
The mother realizes then that the young boys, the future "Generals" who will soon live as men do "playing war", are far from innocent. Her rite of passage is a complete and sad transition from the mother of a child that she has some control over to the parent of an independent man, who will make his own choices and fight his own battles.
The Tragedy of Antigone is not called Creon because Antigone is more important than Creon, she is more controversial, and she is more admirable. Antigone played a bigger role than Creon in that she defied the law and started the whole play’s chain of events, eventually leading to nearly everyone’s death.
Sophocles’ background influenced him to write Antigone. One important influence on the drama was the author’s life in the “golden era” of Athens during fifth century BCE. In that time, Athens was experiencing much change in all facets, and drama was a major factor in Athenian culture. In his essay “Sophocles,” Ed Downey reports that Sophocles was born at the beginning of the “golden era” in Athens and lived a long life influenced by “the artistic and cultural achievements in the ancient Greek world”. Sophocles was a wealthy and highly educated, “happy man.” As a young man, Sophocles began his playwright career, eventually becoming one of the greatest writers in history although only seven of his works are still intact (1). Similarly, the setting
play is. War is not really idealised in this play, it can be taken as