Antigone by Jean Anouilh
The Herndon Times Review
THEATER
'Antigone' Bares Sharp, Tragic Edges
By Michael Birchenall
Weekender Theater Critic
Weekender Section, Page 13-14
TIMES COMMUNITY
NEWSPAPER (The Herndon Times)
Wednesday, January 21, 1998
If the French playwright, Jean Anouilh (1910-1987), is the master of the
theater of the mask, then the Elden Street Player's wearing of his "Antigone"
has reaffirmed the timeless universality of classical based theater.
On a morning when the President was being deposed for alleged sexual
harassment within our national media affairs "theater of the absurd,"
on a day when I spent 3 and 1/2 hours watching a love story evolve from the
ocean's dark graveyard, on a day when I tasted a delicious Belgian styled
home-brew with a local chef's delicate buerre blanc and Chilean sea bass, it
took an evening inside the black box at the Industrial Strength Theatre to open
up the sleeping brain cells. Thank you, Elden Street Players.
When others can rehash a tired Broadway and movie storyline for a safe night
of theater, Elden Street's Antigone by Anouilh shows that a retelling of the
classical Oedipus plays of Sophocles' can be a risk well worth taking in
community theater in a small sold out theater in Herndon. Indeed, the current
staging isn't perfect, but you can sense that the performance will tighten
during the rest of its three-week run. Even so, the sharp cynicism of the
playwright sparkles on stage in his retelling of the tragic story of Antigone.
Eloquently delivered through the voice of the chorus, the dark side of
Anouilh's perspective comes to life with the steady performance of Maggie Keele.
The mischievous sparkle of her eyes and a sterling effort kept her from falling
into the web of doing a solitary reading -- this part could pull one away from
the play's central action and turn the words into unconnected monologues.
Director Todd Huse ably prevented this by moving her voice on the stage to ease
the temptation.
Moved into the modern world with actors dressed in gowns and formal tuxedos,
the motif is juxtaposed with the classical history and today's historical
relationship. Anouilh wrote the play in the mid-1940s as the third in a series
of "black" tragic comedies and "pink" bittersweet comedies.
The set design by Rich Klare and William Aitken effectively pigeon-holes the
voices of the action within columns screened with shear black fabric. While
clever use of the stage for this play's purposes, it made the words miss their
mark at times -- as when you are directed to look at the beauty of Ismene as
compared to Antigone and you can't see either through the screen. And once I
thought Creon might flip over his desk when he sat on its wobbly edge.
The play is long on words and short on action, a challenge for those of us
attuned to storyboards with strong visuals and a lack of words -- and even
thoughts. Antigone, as played by Susan Main, captured a shining essence of the
tragic figure doomed to die from the very beginning. She steps forward and meets
the role head-on and does yeoman-like work in giving the audience their view of
a tormented woman marching on a steady path to death, for a defense of human
dignity.
The slight figure of John Stahlin as Creon further creates the illusion of
power as weakness and leadership confusion. Stahlin never wavers in his
depiction of the king and makes the frailty of his "trade" as king
very believable and undeniable in its path toward destruction.
Sun King Davis as the husband-to-be of Antigone appeared stronger than his
character -- throwing it a bit out of balance. Deanne Forkey as Ismene brought
forth a character that is beautiful, simple and then sadly pitiful, when she
wanted to join the efforts of Antigone on her tragic march. Anne Rector as the
nurse appeared as devoted and confused about the course of events as Anouilh
would have ever wanted to see on stage.
Joe Gems led a curious group of guards that add an odd comic relief to the
scenes as much as the chorus can throw on her icy narration. He added a charm to
the stage that came to be as a part that I looked forward to seeing as the play
progressed.
Todd Huse had a firm grasp of the task at hand as director and presented a
straight-forward production that still retained the shades of darkness that
reveal a director's talent in the interpretation of Anouilh.
During the 1 hour and 45 minutes, I learned that the "Titanic" is a
melodrama and not a tragedy and that the President's problems are a farce and
not a tragedy. As for the issues of affirmation versus bitter protest, and the
fight against disillusionment -- well, I am still thinking about that as I dust
off a few of the brain cells.
© Copyright 1998 Times Community Newspapers
