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Ancient Stage to Modern Lens
By Brady Watkins, Co-Dramaturgy, Composer & Sound Designer
First performed at the Dionysus dramatic festival around 441 BCE, Sophocles’ Antigone is one of the oldest surviving plays in Western drama. Set in the aftermath of a brutal civil war, the play opens not with victory, but with a dispute over how the dead should be treated. Antigone’s brothers Polyneices and Eteocles both slain by the other’s hand – the new King Creon declaring one brother a hero entitled to burial and the other a traitor left exposed to the elements and scavengers as a warning to the city. What follows is a collision of principles.
Coming at this classic as a first-time dramaturg and long-time composer/sound designer felt really natural. I have always had a deep love of the Greek classics and the way they infused their storytelling with music, poetry and dance - there is such life and humanity in these tragic plays. This blending of art forms is something I value so much within my own artistic practice and something Courtney and I wanted to explore in this play. Layering a greater mythological foundation over the text of Antigone and leaning into a contemporary physical language and design has both allowed us to honour the classic and access a modern lens to view this story from.
More than two millennia after it was first staged, societies continue to grapple with leaders who equate disagreement with disloyalty. Antigone is a timely reminder that history is not shaped by rulers and institutions, but by those who decide, at great personal cost, to act.
La Boite Theatre presents
ANTIGONE
5 to 21 March 2026
Roundhouse Theatre, La Boite
Recommended for audiences aged 15+. Contains references to death, dying and infanticide.