Review: Compact, All-Female Cast ANTIGONE at Park Square Theatre

By: Feb. 13, 2019
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Review: Compact, All-Female Cast ANTIGONE at Park Square Theatre

Let's remember: Antigone was a teenager. This 90 minute intermissionless ANTIGONE is calibrated to work beautifully as a week day field trip for high school students, and succeeds equally well for adult audiences who may be a little rusty on the ancient Greek tale of Oedipus and his offspring. Some 2,500 students will see this show up close: the basement thrust stage is quite intimate. You can't be more than a few rows from the action. Thus lots of teenagers will be confronted with one of the world's great plays, one that turns on themes of family loyalty, ethics, leadership and fate. Creative high school teachers can spin lessons off this for days, in all manner of directions, including the legal and historic grounding for contemporary human rights law.

Audiences will also witness a powerful all-female ensemble of 11 actors and two musicians use text, movement, ritual, humor and storytelling to move back and forward in time, rendering these archetypal characters very human. Director MJ (Meagan) Kedrowski and the ensemble have devised a new adaptation, still set in Ancient Greece, which quickly fills in the family tragedy leading to up to the moment ANTIGONE, the play, begins. The simple device of an uplifted arm and finger snap signals repeated time jumps, often back into the childhood of Antigone, her sister Ismene, and their two brothers, all left in the care of their uncle Creon, his wife Eurydice, and their son Haemon, after their father Oedipus is gone. The games and nicknames and tensions in those childhood scenes add texture to the relationships, and up the empathy quotient in the audience. That's smart, original work.

Lauren Diesch as the protagonist is feisty and stubborn; her impeccable articulation means we don't miss a single syllable but never interferes with the emotional immediacy of her lines. Her softer sister Ismene (Jamilia Joiner) is more measured and careful, and we can see her thinking even when she dares not speak. Laura Leffler as King Creon has great authority tinged with warmth, which is not always the case in productions of this text. Jamie White Jachimiec as Eurydice, Creon's wife and Antigone's aunt, does as much as can be done with what is often a cardboard role. Here, she's a rounded character; the cascading family tragedy has driven her to like wine a little too much but that doesn't obscure her insight. Vinecia Coleman plays Haemon as a very credible and mature teenage boy, caught between love and duty; this portrayal made my husband weep.

There's some good stylized fight work, directed by Meredith Kind, who is an ensemble member. Three more actors (Erin Farste, Kelly Huang, Teresa Mock) work with her to provide a contingent of guards. As the lowest ranking characters in the world of the play, they are stuck taking orders, even when they'd rather not; their squabbles and efforts to avoid responsibility add to the humor in this production. Kelly Nelson and Antonia Perez play the two brothers whose deaths in civil war provide the immediate trigger for this phase of the family tragedy; they reappear to stalk the living, demanding allegiance.

The look of the show is simple and effective. All the actors sport tattoos signifying various qualities (honor, immortality, etc.) that are explained in lobby placards. Many have face markings of a sort that are common in warrior cultures. Costumes are simple but effective, with small leather elements that suggest Greek armor or bindings. The ensemble is in black and white. Ismene is in a simple dress of mint green, and Antigone in a lighter shade, with a long neutral wrap. Creon sports a short maroon cloak and Eurydice an elegantly draped maroon gown with leather fastenings. Costumes are by Morgan Groff.

Sarah and Steve Modena are the sound designers for the show. They perform as the onstage musicians for evening shows behind a scrim, playing piano, percussion, and electric guitar. (Natalia Peterson and Jo Kellen take on those duties for the student matinees.) Their work is never overwhelming but sets the mood and ratchets tension up and down effectively. The rest of the set is simple, with a table and some toppled columns, leaving the space largely free for ritual and movement.

Kudos to director Kedrowski and the solid ensemble here. They've taken a classic text and made it fresh without sacrificing depth, and they've mixed simple elements from the theatrical toolkit with focus and commitment to create an altogether compelling production.

Photo credit: Petronella J. Ytsma



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