WILLIAMSVILLE – Rock River Players present Sophocles’ Antigone in a contemporary translation by Paul Woodruff September 13 to 20 in Williamsville.
Antigone was the first in the last set of plays, the Theban plays, written by Sophocles (c. 496 – 406 BCE). Followed by Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, the tragedies center on the characters of Oedipus and Antigone and the myriad challenges they and their (rather odd) family face.
Antigone, according to Brittanica.com, “is the daughter of Oedipus, the former king of Thebes. She is willing to face the capital punishment that has been decreed by her uncle Creon, the new king, as the penalty for anyone burying her brother Polyneices. (Polyneices has just been killed attacking Thebes, and it is as posthumous punishment for this attack that Creon has forbidden the burial of his corpse.) Obeying all her instincts of love, loyalty, and humanity, Antigone defies Creon and dutifully buries her brother’s corpse. Creon, from conviction that reasons of state outweigh family ties, refuses to commute Antigone’s death sentence.” Tragedy soon befalls the House of Thebes in multiple impacts. “At the play’s end Creon is left desolate and broken in spirit. In his narrow and unduly rigid adherence to his civic duties, Creon has defied the gods through his denial of humanity’s common obligations toward the dead.” Central to the play’s theme is this conflict: “obligations of civic versus personal loyalties and religious mores.”
Tracy Berchi, playing Antigone, adds the play is “perennially relevant as long as we’re living in a patriarchy.”
Berchi is joined in the cast by Geof Dolman, Sean Fitzharris, Phil Kramer, Dyana Lee, Nick Morgan, John Ogorzalek, Casey Parles, Alex Lacey, Rose Watson. Production staff includes Moran, Bahman Mahdavi, producer; Peter Broussard, lighting director; Rose Watson, costumes; Jess Guerrero, lights and audio.
Performances are
Friday September 13 at 7PM
Saturday September 14 at 7PM
Sunday September 15 at 2pm
Thursday September 19 at 7pm
Friday September 20 at 7pm
at Williamsville Hall, 35 Dover Rd., Williamsville, VT.
Tickets are $15, general admission; $12, students and seniors–available at the door or use the order form below .
For more information write at info@rockriverplayers.org. The venue is ADA compliant.
‘Antigone’ Buries Her Brothers in the Williamsville Hall
Chris Mays, Vermont News & Media (9/12/2024)
Rock River Players present ‘Antigone’
The Commons (9/3/2024)