Antigone by Sophocles. Translated by Ian Johston. The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London SE 4 to 4 May 2024. 3✩✩✩ Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit – Little Homma Productions.

Antigone by Sophocles. Translated by Ian Johston. The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockety Road, London SE 4 to 4 May 2024.

3✩✩✩ Review: William Russell.

“A brave attempt to scale an Everest of a play.”

A large cast directed by Jayne Denny tackle this Little Homma Production of the last, although written first, of Sophocles’ Theban plays and if they don’t reach the top of the mountain as it were the attempt has to be admired. Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, infuriates the new king Creon after her brothers, on opposite sides in the civil war that followed the death of their father Oedipus, kill one another in battle. Creon orders that Polynices be buried in the proper way but that the rebel Eteocles by left where he is for the birds and beasts to consume. Antigone refuses to accept this in spite of the danger in which it places herself and her sister Ismene and performs a burial. Creon punishes her by shutting her up in a cave to die. Creon, told by Tiresias, a blind seer, that he has offended the gods and must bury Polynices, eventually realises his error and sets about doing it. But his son Haemon, who is in love with Antigone, quarrels with his father and, finding out that Antigone has hanged herself, commits suicide. It is a massive tale, the chorus comments on the goings on from time to time, Creon behaves badly throughout, a dictator unsure of his hold on power, and Antigone persists in doing what she sees as the right thing regardless of how it will affect anybody else including her sister Ismene. I n this version it ends with a statement about women killed by men and the likelihood of a time when gender equality will be achieved which is fair enough but maybe not quite what Sophocles was writing about, rather it was the right of the individual to disobey the state under certain circumstances. Civil disobedience these days is certainly topical as an issue. It is handsomely staged, the action is backed by a lot of rock music, the performances are well spoken and effective, Eveline Reynolds-Boison is a powerful Tiresias, Eleanor Homer creates a persuasive Antigone, Blake Heaven suffers effectively as Haemon and there is a nice comedy double act from Edward Law and George Barnden as the two men who discover Polynices’ corpse and try to make the best of a bad job out of. This Everest of a play may not have been scaled but at least they tried.

Cast

Eleanor Homer – Antigone.

Nadia Dawber – Ismene.

Mark Homer – Creon.

Blake Heaven - Haemon.

Samantha Powell - Eurydice.

Eveline Reynolds-Boison - Tiresias.

Edward Law - Guard 1.

George Barnden – Guard 2.

Will Chappell – Chorus Leader,

Samantha Kalnins-Wright – Chorus/Messenger.

Siobhan Spooner, Joe Hogan, Sarah Goldsmith, Ferris Gill – Chorus.

Creatives

Director – Jayne Denny.

Movement Director – Sean Croft.

Design – Cerys Salkeld Green.

Lighting Design – Lucy Ellis & Kirsty Young.

Sound Design – Mark Homer & Jayne Denny.