Download Antigone

Antigone
by Sophocles
in a version by Don Taylor
Background pack
The National's production
2
Sophocles and the City of Dionysia Festival Characters in the play
3
Synopsis
6
5
Rehearsal overview 9
Interview with Polly Findlay, director 17
poster photo by Lissy Elle
Further production detailsls:
nationaltheatre.org.uk/learning
This background pack is
published by and copyright
The Royal National Theatre
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Reg. No. 1247285
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Views expressed in this
workpack are not necessarily
those of the National Theatre
Director
Polly Findlay
National Theatre Learning
South Bank
London SE1 9PX
T 020 7452 3388
F 020 7452 3380
E learning@
nationaltheatre.org.uk
Workpack writer
Drew Mulligan
Editor
Ben Clare
Rehearsal and production
photographs
Johan Persson
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
1
The National’s production
The production of Antigone opened in the National’s Olivier Theatre on 30 May 2012
Characters, in order of appearance
The daughters of Oedipus
Antigone Jodie Whittaker
Ismene Annabel Scholey
Chorus of Senators of Thebes
Paul Bentall
Martin Chamberlain
Jason Cheater
Stavros Demetraki
Paul Dodds
CraigE Els
Alfred Enoch
Michael Grady-hall
Tim Samuels
Ross Waiton
Creon, King of Thebes Christopher Eccleston
Soldier Luke Norris
Haemon Luke Newberry
Teiresias, a blind prophet Jamie Ballard
Boy Trevor Imani / Reuben Pearce / Daniel Walsh
Messenger Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Eurydice, Creon’s wife Zoë Aldrich
Ensemble Jo Dockery, Emily Glenister
Other parts played by members of the Company
Musicians
Philip Hopkins (Music Director/percussion), Joji Hirota (percussion),
Tom Lessels (woodwind)
Director Polly Findlay
Designer Soutra Gilmour
Lighting Designer Mark Henderson
Music & Sound Designer Dan Jones
Movement Director Aline David
Fight Director Bret Yount
Projection Design Dick Straker
Company Voice Work Kate Godfrey
Staff Director Drew Mulligan
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
2
Sophocles
A Chronology
496/5BC Sophocles, son of Sophillos, is born
to a wealthy family in Colonus near Athens.
He receives a good education involving
training in music, dancing and athletics.
490 The first Persian invasion at Marathon is
defeated by the Athenian Navy. It is said that
the tragedian Aeschylus participated in this
battle.
480 The second Persian invasion is defeated
by the Athenian Navy at Salamis. Sophocles is
said to have sung naked to the lyre as part of
the victory celebration. Euripides is born.
472 The Persians by Aeschylus was presented.
It’s the oldest existing play. It shows that
tragedy was already a set dramatic form.
468 Sophocles enters the drama competition
at the City Dionysia Festival (see overleaf),
possibly with the play Triptolemos, and is
awarded first prize, beating Aeschylus.
This makes him instantly famous.
462 The political leaders, Pericles and
Ephialtes, reform the Athenian constitution
giving more power to the people over the
aristocratic elite. The golden age of Democracy
is born (unless you were a woman or of the
slave class).
458 Aeschylus presents The Oresteia trilogy at
the Dionysia.
449 The actors’ competition is introduced at
the Dionysia.
Late 440s Sophocles’ play Ajax is presented.
445 Comic playwright Aristophanes is born.
443/2 Sophocles serves as Hellenotamias
(treasurer of the Athenian Empire, the former
Dalian League). His appointment reveals that
he is a respected and politically active citizen.
438 Sophocles beats Euripides to the first
prize at the Dionysia.
431-04 The Peloponnesian War begins and
marks a less optimistic period for Athens.
The city is full of refugees from the Spartan
invasion and plague ravages the city; Pericles
is thought to be a victim.
Late 430s Sophocles presents Women of
Trachis.
Mid 420s His play Oedipus Rex is awarded
second prize at Dionysia Festival.
420/19 Sophocles becomes priest of the cult
of the god Asclepios, or Healing Hero. He is
thought to have provided an altar to the god
in his home. There is some evidence to show
that Sophocles was himself worshipped as a
god under the name of Dexion.
Around 415 His play Electra is first performed.
415-13 The Sicilian Expedition. The Athenians
suffer total defeat in Sicily (413) and
Sophocles is asked to serve as Proboulus,
special state commissioner, in the emergency
situation.
409 Sophocles wins first prize with his play,
Philotetes.
406 Sophocles dies in Athens. Anecdotally, he
died either choking on an under-ripe grape pip
or by running out of breath in the middle of a
recitation of Antigone.
404 Peace between Athens and Sparta is
signed.
401 Oedipus at Colonus is posthumously
produced by his grandson, who is also a tragic
poet. It is believed that he wrote it to prove to
his son Iophon that he was not senile. They
never got on.
442-40 His play, Antigone, wins first prize
at the Dionysia. The popularity of the play
means that Sophocles is elected General in
the Samian War, serving alongside Pericles.
Anecdotally he was not thought to be a good
strategist.
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
3
The City Dionysia Festival
The Dionysia was the second most
important festival in ancient Athens in honour
of the god Dionysus. It celebrated theatrical
performances of dramatic tragedies and
later, included comedies. It was also a
festival of religious ceremonies. The Dionysia
was formed of two parts: rural and city. It
was the City Dionysia with which Sophocles
was strongly associated.
Greek theatre flourished for 700 years.
Ancient Greek drama was 'lost' in the
Middle Ages only to be rediscovered in the
Renaissance. But only 31 plays survive from
this period, written by three playwrights:
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
Who was the audience?
• This was a popular art; audiences
numbered around 15,000 for each
performance.
• It was also state-subsidised theatre; the
poor were paid to be allowed to attend.
The legacy
• The plays should be considered as living
artefacts, not archaeological fragments.
There are no eye-witness accounts of the
plays.
• Sophocles’ Theban Plays were part of
the festival, but in fact were written over
about 30 years and therefore are not
strictly a trilogy.
What happened
• The City Dionysia took place in March
at one side of the Acropolis in Athens and
the timing may have coincided with the first
tasting of the previous year’s wine.
• It was a competition lasting five days with
one dramatist presenting the majority of
plays for each day.
• The day consisted of three tragedies, a
satyr play and finally a comedy written by
another author. Aeschylus’ Oresteia is the
only surviving trilogy.
• The playwrights mostly chose to write
about mythic figures, taking advantage
of historical distance to comment on the
current state of Athens.
• Five rich men were chosen to produce
each day’s plays. They would hire and train
the chorus, and commission the designers,
costumiers and mask-makers. The actors
were matched to each Producer and Chorus
along with the playwright. Initially Greek
plays only had a Chorus.
• The plays were judged by 10 judges
selected from the 10 tribes of Athens. They
cast their votes into an urn, and five were
chosen at random. The result was taken
from these five.
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
4
Characters in the play
The Royal Family
Children of Oedipus and Jocasta
Eteocles
King of Thebes – killed at the start of the
play
Polynices
Head of Army of Argos – killed at the start of
the play
Antigone
Princess of Thebes
Ismene
Princess of Thebes
Creon
Second in Command and now King of
Thebes, brother to Jocasta
Eurydice
His wife
Haemon
Son to Creon and Eurydice, betrothed to his
cousin Antigone
Citizens of Thebes
Soldier
Private sent in troop to guard Polynices’
body
Teiresias
The blind prophet of Thebes
Boy
Teiresias’ boy
Chorus: the Personnel of the Thebes
War Room
In this production, the Chorus were
assigned more specific individual roles,
to suit the production's 1970s Cold-War
setting.
Military
General
Head of Military
Head of Military Intelligence
In charge of military manoeuvres and
gathering information on military enemies of
the state
Communications Officer
In charge of encryption and decryption of
army orders and intercepted intelligence
Security
Head of State Security
Head of internal security – coordinates
action against civilian and covert threats to
the state
Head of Secret Police
In charge of secret police and interrogation
and covert operations – second-incommand to Head of State Security
Security Analyst
In charge of listening to bugs looking for
seditious activity
Security Archivist
In charge of creating and maintaining files
on the activities of enemies of the state and
the general populace
Security/Bodyguard
In charge of War Room security
Other War Room Personnel
Press Officer and head of
Internal Communications
In charge of creating state propaganda and
checking the press for seditious material
Office Boy
Office runner
Janitor
Head of War Room maintenance
Other War Room Personnel (Non-Chorus)
Typist
Types all official and secret documents
Office Girl
Serves refreshments and tidies office
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
5
Synopsis
Scene One
Antigone meets her sister Ismene and
informs her of the decree issued by their
uncle Creon, concerning the burial of their
dead brothers. The two brothers were meant
to share the throne of Thebes, alternating
each year, but as Eteocles refused to give
up the throne his brother Polynices raised
an army in Argos and has been besieging
the city. Last night the brothers met in single
combat and both died. Creon has ordered
that the body of Eteocles should be buried
with full military honours but that the body
of Polynices would be left unburied as a
punishment and a warning to the enemies of
Thebes. Polynices is doomed to an eternity
of unrest. The punishment for burying him is
public stoning to death.
Antigone wants her sister Ismene to help her
bury Polynices’ body, but Ismene is afraid of
going against the will of the state and pleads
for Antigone not to do it. Antigone refuses
and goes off to carry out the act, leaving
Ismene in the palace.
The Chorus celebrate the victory and
describe the battle of the previous day
and the fierce fight between Polynices and
Eteocles at the seventh gate of Thebes.
Scene Two
Creon enters and delivers his maiden
speech as King to the Chorus of Thebes.
He describes his commitment to the State
and his desire to honour all those that serve
the state. He tells the Chorus of the official
decree concerning the sons of Oedipus as
an illustration of his policy concerning loyalty
to the state. The Chorus support Creon and
he asks them to implement his policies.
He warns them about plotting against him
and reminds them that the penalty for such
actions will be death.
A Soldier arrives and tells Creon that his
company of Soldiers who were given the
task of guarding Polynices’ body have
discovered that it has been simply buried
with a handful of dust scattered over the
corpse. The Chorus warn Creon that it
might be a warning from the Gods. Creon
dismisses this and implies that the Soldier
might have been bribed to look the other
way while it was buried. He is incensed and
orders the Soldier to find the culprit or he,
the Soldier, will die for it. The Soldier leaves
the palace vowing never to return again.
The Chorus speak of the ‘Miracle of Man’.
They describe his mastery of language,
thought, political wisdom and government.
It is a celebration of man’s ingenuity but also
warns against the possibility that these gifts
may be turned to evil ends.
Creon (Christopher Eccleston)
Photo: Johan Persson
Scene Three
The Soldier returns with the culprit, Antigone.
He describes to Creon how Antigone had
returned to bury the body with ceremonial oil
and found that the dust had been brushed
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
6
Synopsis (continued)
off her brother by the soldiers. She cursed
them and buried her brother again. At this
point the soldiers appeared from their hiding
place and arrested her on the spot. Creon
listens to this story and asks Antigone if she is
guilty – and she admits it. Creon dismisses the
Soldier. Creon asks Antigone if she has heard
about the decree forbidding the burial, and
she admits that she was aware of it. Antigone
declares she is proud of her actions and willing
to die for it. She did not obey Creon’s decree
as it was against the ‘Natural Laws’. Creon
argues that the law of the state cannot be
broken and that if they are, all order in the state
will be lost, he cannot allow it even for family
members. He orders that Ismene be brought
before him as he saw her crying in the corridor
and that would indicate that she was guilty too.
Antigone and Creon argue to the point where
they are set in their positions and Antigone’s
fate is confirmed. Ismene arrives and is
interrogated by Creon. He accuses her of
complicity in the crime and she admits it.
Antigone is incensed and will not let her
sister claim the credit of doing something
she was afraid to do. She softens her stance
and tells Ismene that there is no point both of
them dying for this: she should live. Ismene
asks Creon if he will kill the woman that his
son plans to marry (Creon’s son Haemon is
betrothed to Antigone). Creon says that his son
can never marry a criminal; and both sisters
are led away. The Chorus try to intercede on
behalf of his son but Creon reminds them that
they all agreed to the decree and by logical
conclusion, her death sentence. Creon is left
on stage.
The Chorus speak of the curse on the family of
Oedipus and that once you have offended the
gods every subsequent generation is doomed.
They warn that man’s ambition is a dangerous
thing and that any man that commits a crime
and is proud of the action has a ‘flaming
sword’ hanging over his head.
Scene Four
Haemon arrives to see his father. Creon
expresses his wish for Haemon to understand
the reason for his decision concerning his
bride-to-be. Creon speaks of loyalty and the
need for sons and citizens to follow the will
of the ruler, right or wrong. Haemon responds
that he is concerned for his father’s reputation
and that he has heard many people defend
and praise Antigone’s actions as proper and
respectful to the gods. He indicates that many
people think the same but are too afraid of
Creon to say it. He argues the wise ruler is
one that can recognise his mistakes and put
them right. Creon accuses his son of being on
the ‘woman’s side’ and defying the law of the
state. Haemon declares that if he kills Antigone
that she won’t be the only one to die that day.
They argue and Creon, in fury, orders Antigone
to be brought before them and killed on the
spot. Haemon leaves, vowing never to see his
father again.
Creon tells the Chorus to carry out his orders.
They question whether they should kill both
sisters. Creon takes their advice and spares
Ismene. He orders that Antigone should be
walled up in a cave and left to die, and they are
to provide her with just enough food and water
that the state cannot be blamed for killing her.
He leaves.
The Chorus speak of the madness that love
creates and that it infects not only mortals but
the gods too.
Scene Five
Antigone is brought before them. She
considers her fate and is filled with loneliness
and regret for the life she has now lost. The
Chorus try to cheer her, speaking of the
glorious nature of her action and her death.
Creon re-enters and orders the guard to take
her away to her death. Antigone appeals to
Creon and the chorus and justifies her action.
She speaks to her dead brother and hopes
that she will soon be re-united with her family
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
7
Synopsis (continued)
who have suffered so much. Creon orders the
guards to take her away and she is dragged
from the room.
The Chorus speak of fate and how the efforts
of man – ‘...huge armies, unsinkable fleets’
– cannot prevent it. Antigone’s fate was
determined a long time ago and there was
nothing she could do about it.
Scene Six
Teiresias, the blind prophet, arrives and
warns Creon that he is on the point of making
a disastrous mistake. He describes the
omens that he has seen through the eyes
of his Boy and the unsuccessful sacrifice
he made to the gods to try and understand
what was happening. The gods themselves
are disgusted by Creon’s action in denying
a proper burial for Polynices and, by burying
Antigone alive he has denied them of two
bodies, insulting them and denying ‘the
ancient rights that even the gods themselves
don’t dare to question’. He entreats Creon to
change his mind, recognise his mistake and
put it right; there is still time. Creon accuses
Teiresias of taking money and being corrupt.
Teiresias is provoked to tell Creon of the whole
horrific consequences of his actions; the
window of opportunity has now closed and
the Furies are on their way to take revenge. He
says that by the end of the day Creon will pay
for his actions with the blood of his own child
and that the whole of Thebes will suffer for his
actions. Teiresias leaves.
Creon is left astonished and terrified. The
Chorus urge him to take action. Creon finally
understands and orders that they all go
together to bury Polynices and free Antigone.
They pray to Dionysus, the god of Thebes, to
help them cleanse the city and bring healing.
Scene Seven
A Messenger arrives and meets the Chorus.
He tells them that he has witnessed a terrible
sight and that Haemon, Creon’s son, has killed
himself. Eurydice, Creon’s wife, overhears
some of this and asks the Messenger to tell her
everything. The Messenger describes how they
went and buried Polynices body then rushed to
the cave to rescue Antigone but when they got
there they heard shouting and screaming from
within the cave and saw that someone had
already forced the entrance. inside, they found
Haemon crying over the body of Antigone, who
had hanged herself. Creon begged Haemon to
come away but in anger Haemon lunged for his
father. Creon leapt out of the way and Haemon
turned the sword upon himself and died,
cradling Antigone in his arms.
Eurydice leaves in silence. The Chorus tell the
Messenger to follow her to make sure she is
safe.
Creon returns with Haemon’s body. He laments
the death and takes full responsibility for it. The
Messenger arrives and tells Creon that his wife
Eurydice has just killed herself with a knife. She
cursed Creon as the murderer. Creon enters
the room to see his dead wife. He looks for a
sword to take his own life but can't find one.
He is a broken man and leaves. The Chorus
speak of how man must honour the gods’ law
and that wisdom is found through suffering.
Antigone (Jodie Whittaker)
Photo: Johan Persson
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
8
Rehearsal overview
Staff Director Drew Mulligan writes
about the rehearsal process. Rehearsal
exercises are highlighted in this colour.
WORKSHOP WEEK
February 2012: NT Studio
Prior to the start of rehearsals we spent a
week at the NT Studio workshopping ideas
for the main production. The main area of
exploration was how we could make the
Chorus fit with our idea of the world of the
play. Although we are creating the original
period of the play we are taking major
thematic and stylistic elements from the
Cold War to help tell the story. The action
will take place in the ‘Operations Room’ or
‘War Room’ of Thebes as its new leader
Creon struggles to re-establish order after a
bloody civil war. The battle has just ended
and we now witness the aftermath. The
Chorus will man the operations room.
The design team have taken the 1964
Stanley Kubrick film Dr Strangelove as a
stylistic inspiration, along with images of
the GDR (the German Democratic Republic,
otherwise known as East Germany, was a
state established in 1949 and dissolved in
1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall) and
the 2006 film The Lives of Others about the
Stasi (secret police) of East Berlin.
Though we are creating a fictionalised
world for the play to happen in, we are
very keen that the actions and setting have
some authenticity. It also doesn’t seem like
a world where the Chorus would speak
as one, which is traditional in productions
of Greek tragedies. The workshop week
was very useful in helping us explore how
this ‘war room’ might operate and what
individual jobs or roles the Chorus might
have within it. It would also help us to
identify different characters and voices
within the Chorus with a view to dividing
up their lines and making them a group
of individuals.
With this in mind we explored some
background research on the GDR and
watched parts of The Lives of Others to
examine how the Stasi operated and what
routines they used to monitor or spy on
their own people. I organised a trip for the
group to the Churchill War Rooms, guided
by the head historian James Taylor. This
trip was fantastic and we were fortunate to
be taken into rooms that are not ordinarily
open to the public. It gave us an extremely
useful insight into the daily routines of the
operating staff and a clear idea about how
a war could be run from such a bunker.
We returned to the NT Studio and spent
the rest of the week coming up with
routines that could be run in such a war
room. Once these were established
we combined them with a movement
vocabulary established within the group
by our movement director Aline David. We
came up with some methods that would
keep a war room operating while focussing
on certain individuals or tasks. This was
by slowing the other actors down or by
perhaps ‘muting’ their actions.
At the end of the week we had created a
useful vocabulary for the world of the play
and a way for the chorus to operate as
individuals, but also as one, as a part of the
war room of Thebes.
REHEARSAL WEEK 1
April 2012: Rehearsal Room 1 at the NT
Tuesday
Once we were nicely warmed-up we then
had the model box showing led by designer
Soutra Gilmour and the director Polly
Findlay. Soutra talked through her design
process, including wanting to react to the
specific architecture of the Olivier Theatre.
This production is set in a world that
stylistically borrows heavily from the Cold
War era and most especially the GDR. The
‘Brutalist’ design of the Olivier then forms
the perfect backdrop to our Theban War
Room. Brutalism is a style of architecture
which flourished from the 1950s to the
mid 1970s that came from the modernist
architectural movement. Brutalist buildings
are typically blockish and have straight
lines, and are often made of concrete.
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
9
Rehearsal overview (continued)
The National Theatre is a significant example
of Brutalism.
We sat round a table and Polly introduced the
play and her ideas for the production. She
gave a topic to each member of the company
to research and report back on in week two.
These ranged from research on the classical
world of Ancient Greece to investigations of
mid-20th-century Radar systems (for Kobna
Holdbrook-Smith who plays the Messenger).
The aim is to get a strong understanding
of the classical world of the play and of the
world of our production, mid-20th-century
Cold War era.
Aline started work on some movement
vocabularies that we will use throughout the
production. We worked on a movement scale
from 1 to 8, where 1 was a freeze and 8 was
running. More on this later.
in the afternoon, we did a read through which
went very well.
Wednesday
The cast began the day doing circuit training
with Aline, then we sat round the table and
started to ‘unit the play’. As Polly describes
it, a different unit
starts when ‘the
air changes in the
room’. If someone
says, in the middle
of a conversation,
‘I’m pregnant’ and
that is a new piece
of information to
those in the room,
that becomes the
start of a new unit.
So we spent the rest
of the morning slowly
working through the
play looking for the
moments when the
air changes. Once
we have identified
these units we
then name them. We have also created
scene numbers, as the play exists almost
as a single scene. This task really helps
to create a shared understanding of the
play and the major events that happen
throughout it. Unit-ing is not an exact
science by any means but it provokes
a very healthy discussion and engages
everyone with the whole play and not just
their own role.
In the afternoon, we were visited by the
Classics scholar Laura Swift. She spent
the afternoon filling us in on the context
of the play, the history of Thebes and the
story of Oedipus. She also helped us with
some pronunciation issues. This was an
extremely useful session and the company
were full of questions.
Thursday
From a discussion about the GDR and
military regimes with one of the cast, Paul
Bentall, Polly was keen to see if it was
possible to get someone from the military
to come and speak to the company, and
perhaps drill them. After discussions with
Polly I sent the Ministry of Defence an
email with what we were looking for and by
The company in rehearsal
Photo: Johan Persson
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
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Rehearsal overview (continued)
lunchtime they had found someone to come
to speak to us in the afternoon. We had a very
useful discussion with Lieutenant Colonel
Richard Frampton Hobbs in which he agreed
to find a drill sergeant who would come
and ‘shout’ authentically at the company.
He would then return later in the rehearsal
process to cast an expert eye on the pseudomilitary routines that we have established and
tell us how effective they are.
We look at other translations of Antigone to
check how they reference ‘the gods’. We
wondered whether the ‘God’ mentioned in
the text had been translated as such to fit into
our mono-theistic Judeo-Christian tradition,
as opposed to mentioning the ‘gods’. It
seems in this particular case the reference
to God refers to Zeus and most of the other
translations name him directly.
WEEK 2
Monday
The whole company met at Stage Door ready
to board the coach for a trip to the disused
secret nuclear bunker at Kelvedon Hatch in
Essex (secretnuclearbunker.com). It was
built in the 1950s when the threat of nuclear
war was very real. It was created as an early
warning bunker and refuge for government
officials. It was the closest deep bunker to
London.
The bunker had provisions to keep the
inhabitants alive for 3 months, though the
prospect of large-scale destruction of a
nuclear strike meant that there probably
wouldn’t be much of a country left to come
out for. Our trip to the Churchill War Rooms
on Friday had felt like a celebration of
plucky British grit; this had an altogether
different feel. It felt haunted by fear. Even
though you could survive a nuclear strike
down here, what would you emerge to find?
The operations room was stuffed full of old
computers and telephones, futile attempts
to control a country that would have been
almost completely destroyed. This feeling of
total war, and of trying to operate in extreme
conditions was very useful to the company.
We are setting the production in our own
version of the Cold War. Though nuclear
strike is not a threat, the feeling of total war,
of being surrounded, is very real. The period
of the bunker and the type of technology of
the time match our idea for the production
and the duties of the bunker officers
matched very closely our idea of the Chorus.
The worth of this trip will become apparent
as we start to build operational systems for
our war room of Thebes later this week.
Tuesday
Polly set the cast to create systems to
operate in the bunker. The cast were
separated into three groups and given the
task of creating a system for 20 people, the
number in the cast, to operate
the security of the bunker, the
army and security of Thebes and
lastly the system to maintain the
operation of the bunker. We ran
the same task in the workshop
week and it was very effective.
We had reports from cast member
Tim Samuels on Stasi surveillance
techniques and Emily Glenister on
the life of women in Ancient Greek
society.
Wednesday
Having finished unit-ing the play
we started to ‘action’ the scenes.
Christopher Eccleston (Creon) in rehearsal
Photo: Johan Persson
National Theatre Learning Background Pack
11
Rehearsal overview (continued)
There are many different ways to describe
‘actioning’ but basically it is a method to
make sure that the actor is trying to affect the
other characters on stage with every line they
say. So, we take a line or thought and ascribe
a transitive verb to it. This verb describes
what the actor is trying to make the actor they
are speaking to feel. An example is ‘I slap
you’: you want the other actor to feel slapped
by the line. This is a slow process and it takes
a bit of time to get into the swing of it but it is
very effective.
After the break, Aline worked with the Chorus
on the systems created the day before. We
worked on the bunker maintenance system
which was led by Jason Cheater. We had
people in charge of the water, measuring the
air quality, making the food and Christopher
Eccleston in charge of pest control. Into this
system Polly likes to add some variables. In
this case there was air poisoning, which led
to various characters being sick.
WEEK 3
Monday
We spent the first part of the morning working
on the Soldier’s speech to Creon, describing
how he had witnessed Antigone burying
her brother, Polynices. We ran the scene a
few times and then Polly tried a couple of
exercises with Luke Norris, who plays the
Soldier.
Firstly, she asked all those listening to grab
a pencil and paper and, as Luke spoke,
they had to draw what he was describing.
It made Luke really slow down and invest in
every image that he was describing so as
to convey exactly what he had seen to the
‘artists’. This was a very effective way of
forcing the listeners to really engage their own
imaginations and to create a set of images in
their minds for this scene. These images will
now stay with all those on stage and cannot
help but improve the scene.
doing it. Each image he described meant
that he had to select and place a new object
on the sculpture. These objects didn’t have
to have any connection with what he was
saying; rather it was Luke’s care in selecting
and placing them that had the strongest
effect on the way he spoke. The speech
became slow and very specific and we really
listened and connected to every thought.
We looked at the Chorus’ speech ‘The
Miracle of Man’, which takes place after
Creon has dismissed the Soldier to find
out who buried the body of Polynices. This
is an ode to man’s capacity to learn and
transform the world around him but warns
against letting his power corrupt his morals
and his faith in the gods. During this speech
Aline has choreographed movement for the
war room of Thebes. Within this movement
there are moments of suspension where
everyone except the speaker goes into slow
motion, moments where only one person
is moving while the others are frozen etc.
These techniques are great at animating the
speech; they also bring a filmic vocabulary
to the stage as they allow the director to
focus the audience’s attention on certain
individuals where usually in theatre
everything is in a wideshot.
Tuesday
We focused on ‘levels of attention’, between
what is going on in the room and the
characters’ work. The task was to keep
the Chorus active but not draw focus
from what is going on in the centre of the
room. We did a series of exercises where
someone spoke and some people carried
on working but split their attention between
listening and the work they were doing. For
example, 70% focus on the speaker and
30% attention on work still allowed the work
to get done but as an audience we were
very focussed on the speaker. We continued
this exercise for a while with small groups,
gradually building to working with the whole
Chorus. It was extremely effective.
Secondly, Polly asked Luke to repeat the
speech but this time create a sculpture while
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Rehearsal overview (continued)
WEEK 4
Tuesday
We were joined by Company Sergeant
Major Gareth Waddell, of the Irish Guards,
to take the company through some drill
training. We hadn’t warned the company
about this as we thought it would be a nice
surprise, which it certainly was. We didn’t
introduce him either, because he was keen
to dive straight in. He’d trained recruits at
Sandhurst so felt that he could get a handle
on a group of actors! He suddenly called the
company to form a line, tallest to shortest,
and set about training them. For the next
hour he drilled the actors to within an inch of
their lives from basic standing positions to
turning, marching, saluting and, of course,
shouting. Those that didn’t perform to the
expected standard had to do press-ups.
The idea for this was that we needed to
inject a military bearing into the Chorus
and the company as a whole. We feel
that our Thebes is a state where everyone
would have taken part in some sort of
military training. The effect this has on your
physicality is significant: you can spot an
ex-military person a mile off just by looking
at the way they stand and sit. We needed
this to be embedded and we wanted it to
be authentic. After an hour of training the
company were looking very impressive.
We were joined by Major Rupert
Hill, Second in Command of
The London Regiment, who
took us through the command
structure of the British army,
the differences in how the army
acts in peace time and on a
war footing, and how the army
polices itself. Major Hill had
been stationed in Germany
before the reunification of the
country and was able to give us
an insight into the atmosphere
of fear that must have pervaded
the ranks of the East German
military, where a staggering one
in every 10 soldiers was also a
member of the secret service.
He likened it to a police state where there
is a constant pressure not to do anything
wrong. He suggested that it might be like
press night, performing in front of the critics,
an experience that the whole company
understood.
Wednesday
We tried an exercise with Annabel Scholey
who plays Ismene and Jodie (Antigone). There
is a scene where the sisters argue about
whether Ismene should share Antigone’s guilt
of the crime of burying their brother without
having committed the act. This is a great
scene, and to help each actor connect with
what the other was saying Polly asked Jodie
and Annabel to repeat the last two words
of what the other actor had spoken, with a
question mark after them. For example:
Ismene: Please, my sister, don’t despise me!
Let me share the honour and die with you.
Antigone: With you?
You’ve no right to claim the honour for doing.
What you were afraid to do. One death. Will
be enough. Why should you die?
Ismene: You die?
Because life without you won’t be worth
living.
Antigone: Worth living?
Ask Creon to protect you. He’s your uncle...
Paul Dodds (Chorus) in rehearsal
Photo: Johan Persson
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Rehearsal overview (continued)
This exercise has a clever effect of making
the actors really listen to each other and
helps to make each line an answer and
correction of what the other character has
just said. It also helps prevent the argument
from becoming a shouting match.
Friday
We looked at the re-entrance of Antigone
when she is preparing for death and we
worked out routines that the Chorus might
perform when preparing someone for the
Death Penalty. Antigone was frisked, had
a medical check, signed for her clothes
and had her photo taken. It was clinical
and chilling. Antigone was left seated
alone. We experimented with different ways
of restraining Jodie for this speech and
finally ended with her being dragged off
screaming by Ross Waiton (Chorus). This is
not a heroic noble death and the anger and
fear felt by Jodie was very moving.
WEEK 5
Monday
We explored the Messenger scene with
the actor, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. The
Messenger arrives and starts breaking
terrible news to two low-status characters.
Very soon they are joined by
Eurydice, who overhears their
conversation. He then has to
deliver the terrible news to her
that her son has killed himself
after finding Antigone dead,
and that he blamed and cursed
his father, her husband Creon,
for it. This is a very difficult
speech to deliver. Kobna and
Polly agreed that any overengagement of the speaker in
the horror of the images he had
seen would seem self indulgent
and lessen the impact of the
images themselves. His duty is
to tell Eurydice everything he
has seen. We agreed that the
Messenger had a friendship with Haemon
and Eurydice and so he felt compelled to tell
her everything from a personal as well as a
professional standpoint.
Polly marked out two squares on the floor,
one for Kobna to work out the facts that he
had seen, and the other with details that he
would actually deliver to Eurydice. It was
very effective in making the images explicit
but it had the effect of lessening the action
towards Eurydice which was ‘to give her all
the information’ or ‘to respect her’ by not
sugar-coating the news.
Tuesday
We had our first proper run-through of the
play. It lasted 1 hour 47 minutes, which was
far too long. But it had some great moments
and revealed some areas to work on.
Thursday
There will be a clock on stage giving the
time of events, so I spent some of the
morning trying to create a plot of the clock
through the play. It means trying to set a
time for each event and guessing how long
the intervals are between them. There are
moments when the time needs to jump
forward two hours, for instance. These time
jumps always happen during the Chorus
Jodie Whittaker (Antigone) in rehearsal
Photo: Johan Persson
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Rehearsal overview (continued)
odes. We want to make our clock spin
forward during these scenes. [The clock
later became static during previews
rather than showing the time in the play].
Saturday morning
We ran the first 30 pages of the play,
up until Teiresias arrives. Polly told the
company that we have the structure of
our production, and now it is time to fill it
with emotional intensity. The second big
note was that the company needed to
‘go through the middle of each line and
not glide over the top of it’. The actors
need to meet the story head on and
engage with it. Greek tragedy gives an
actor the opportunity to go to areas of
human experience where other dramas
do not take you. Basically, the instruction
was to not hold back. It was a great note
session and a real call to arms.
WEEK 6
Monday
Polly had decided that we needed to get
to the point quicker in some speeches
so she had cut some lines. The company
accepted them with good grace and with
a collective understanding that the play
would benefit from this tightening up.
With these cuts still fresh in our heads
we did a speed line run
of the whole play. We
sat in a circle and spoke
the play to each other,
playing the full intention
and emotion of the line,
just quicker. We read
the whole play in 50
minutes and observed
that some parts of the
play had never felt better.
This energised the whole
company and gave them
an understanding of the
level of attack required
to perform this play; the
actors and the audience
should be breathless by
the end of it.
Tuesday
I worked on the trial scene with Jodie
and Annabel. We wanted to look at this
scene with regard to the new blocking
that had been created. The sisters are
separated and are sat facing away from
each other. We wanted to make sure
that this blocking didn’t affect their
connection with each other and lessen
the drive of their argument. We used
an exercise where the person listening
repeated the important word from the
speaker’s speech before she then said
her line. This ‘activation’ word is the
word or phrase that makes you want to
speak. This word becomes the word that
makes you breathe in before you speak.
This was a really useful exercise because
Jodie and Annabel didn’t always choose
the same activation words. It really helps
the actors to listen and think about what
the other actor has said and to connect
with each other and the argument.
Wednesday
We did a speed-run of the show.
The note was to think faster and not
compromise on the clarity or the acting.
There was plenty to note, especially
not to shout too much and give away
authority. Everyone needed to try
more successfully to keep a lid on the
situation.
Annabel Scholey (Ismene) and Jodie Whittaker (Antigone) in rehearsal
Photo: Johan Persson
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Rehearsal overview (continued)
That afternoon some of the production
staff came to see a run-through, as well
as Director of the NT Nicholas Hytner and
Associate Director Ben Power. Inevitably
there was tension and anticipation in the
room. This run was a real improvement on
the morning’s run, and we felt relieved and
excited at the potential.
Thursday
We worked through Polly’s notes from the
run through. We were lucky enough to have
Major Rupert Hill present to cast his expert
eye over the military routines that we had
created and examine the ‘believability’ of our
Theban War Room. After rehearsals, Aline
and I spent an hour with Major Rupert and
received some great feedback. We hoped
to implement this the next day. Overall he
felt that we had managed to recreate the
atmosphere very accurately, which was very
reassuring to hear.
Friday
Once notes were given we had another run
through. The actors were getting into the
rhythm of the piece now and this was their
best run yet. It was clear that there were
still many things to work on. The best use
of time was to prepare for the technical
rehearsals by fixing blocking and scenechange issues rather than acting and
character notes as these could be done
during the dress rehearsals and previews.
We started with the opening of the show,
making all the entrances quicker and cutting
out superfluous moments.
This was our last day in the rehearsal room.
We started technical rehearsals the next
afternoon. We’d had an amazing time in
this room, creating the outline and filling
in the details of what we hoped would
be a thrilling and moving production. The
production was at a great stage and we
were all really excited to get into the theatre.
Christopher Eccleston (Creon)
Photo: Johan Persson
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Interview with Polly Findlay, director
What were your initial reactions on first
reading Antigone?
It was exciting to come across a two-and-ahalf-thousand-year-old play with a woman at
its centre.
Greek plays are part of our DNA, they’re
the building blocks of our imagination.
We’ve rarely come up with better stories.
Most movies that we’re familiar with are
reworkings of Greek texts.
This play is incredibly modern in its structure,
it moves really fast, there’s no 'faff' to it; it
often is ahead of its audience. It made me
think of a Channel 4 political thriller.
So did that have an influence on the
production?
I definitely wanted it to be accessible: I’ve
seen other productions of ancient texts
haven’t felt relevant to my world.
It felt important that the machine of power
at the heart of the play was tangible to
us and that we could have some kind of
real imaginative purchase on it. But at the
same time we wanted to avoid making it an
indictment of any particular political regime.
We wanted to find bits of vocabulary from
political thrillers we’d
enjoyed and bits of
vocabulary from things
we knew about from
various political regimes,
things that were part of
our collective imagination.
We borrowed quite a
lot from a film called
The Lives of Others
and Dr Strangelove
as well as real-life war
bunker locations, like the
Government War Rooms
or Kelvedon Hatch.
on the page is that Antigone appears to be
the goodie and Creon the baddie. We as
audiences really like to back an underdog.
But in casting Creon we wanted someone
who the audience would like, who was
charismatic on stage, with a big presence,
humanity, vulnerability and charisma, so
Creon didn’t seem completely like a big bad
wolf. For Antigone, we really wanted to find
someone with presence, who wasn’t going
to be girlie or apologetic, and we found all
that in Jodie Whitaker.
What were the challenges of the
rehearsal process?
Creating the role of the chorus felt like a
core thing. It’s the greatest challenge for
anyone staging the play now. The Chorus
feels like a convention very far removed
from us now, although when you look for it,
there are choric elements to everyday life.
The people that run London Underground
are basically choric. We wanted to find a
way of making those people real and give
them an individual and collective identity.
So in rehearsing that aspect of the play I've
had to decide how much you want to see
them, or focus on them. From a personal
point of view, moving that number of people
around the stage is something I haven’t had
What were you looking
for in the casting of
Antigone and Creon?
The difficulty with the play
Christopher Eccleston (Creon), Director Polly Findlay and
Luke Newberry (Haemon) in rehearsal
Photo: Johan Persson
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Interview with Polly Findlay, director (continued)
to do before so it was a learning curve. The
challenge with texts that old and dense is to
make them feel transparent and the throughline considered, even though that thought is
coined by someone in a different culture and
with a different thought process.
The play has quite a large sound design.
What are the elements you wanted to bring
out through this?
It felt very important in terms of creating
atmosphere, which is perhaps an obvious
thing to say. We wanted to create a very
specific world for the war room bunker in
terms of the horror taking place there, and
the conveyer belt sort of bureaucracy. So we
wanted to set the tone with the sound design.
We also wanted to find a way of channelling
the Ancient Greeks’ religious understanding
and make sense of that. Dan Jones [Music
and Sound Designer] did a lot of work on
finding the tension between a bureaucratic,
banal sense of horror, and – particularly in the
choral sections – a heightened, more angular,
other-worldly landscape.
The playwright’s intention – and it’s not
often obvious in reading it – is that the
choral lines are musical. We wanted to fulfil
the playwright’s instructions to lift it out of
naturalism, to heighten the atmosphere of the
play, to give it a metaphorical currency.
Did the production develop a lot in the
preview performances?
Its always fascinating that when you put a
play in front of an audience you see it through
other people’s eyes. It has changed quite a lot.
We’ve found a way of driving the pace, and
we’ve tried to plant more seeds earlier on to
show Creon’s humanity before he hits the big
tragic wall at the end. We’ve had to do a bit of
reblocking to focus things. It’s been a process
of honing technical elements and ensure we’re
all singing from the same song sheet.
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