Antigone

The production of Alcestis by Euripides, directed by Jacques Nichet, brought one of the most moving heroines in Greek drama back to the stage. Now, with Antigone, Nichet is tackling one of the most difficult heroines, one of serene violence, a "heroine fatale" in our artistic heritage, the young woman both saintly and criminal, who violates a royal edict invoking a higher law. Her isolation and abandonment will be played out by Océane Mozas, who previously worked with Jacques Nichet in Les Cercueils de zinc [Zinc Coffins]. The role of Creon, the king who, with a single decree, wished to sweep away his blighted past, has been given to Simon Abkarian (in Mnouchkine's Orestie before doing his own stage renditions of Greek tragedians in a magnificent production entitled L'Ultime chant de Troie).
For Aeschylus, men and gods often walk in the same sphere; for Sophocles, things divine occur "off stage" at a distance, leaving scope for destiny and human minds to operate in freedom. The plot of Antigone, may thus be seen as classical: two ambitions meet; one is the orphan girl whose two brothers have just killed one another in a bid to seize or retain the throne; the other is the king crowned the day before, who has claimed the right to refuse a burial and tomb for the enemy brother who fought against his country. Antigone will carry out the funeral rights, no matter what price is to be paid. The tragedy lies in the different levels of confrontation between these two determined and inflexible wills, then in the defeat of the weaker party by the stronger party. But at the same time, the two arms on the tragic scales secretly reach a point of balance, as if the power of Antigone were growing until the decline leads to disaster. At this dramatic breaking point, Creon discovers Antigone taking action because she is dead: Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, is "off stage", in the other world, from whence Creon is struck, as he finally sees and shows all the citizens of Thebes that family ties and civil ties are interwoven, forming a complex fabric which he must not destroy; yet he has rent it asunder, and this plight, which Antigone has drawn him into, stands as an enigma still relevant to this day.