Antigone (French Literary Texts) - Softcover

Anouilh, Jean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0174443382 ISBN 13: 9780174443384

Publisher: La Table Ronde, 1974

Synopsis

Antigone was originally produced in Paris in 1942, when France was occupied and part of Hitler's Europe. The play depicts an authoritarian regime which mirrors the predicament of the French people of the time. Based on Sophocles' ancient Greek tragedy, Antigone which was first performed in Athens in the 5th century BC, its theme was nevertheless topical. For in Antigone's faithfulness to her dead brother and his proper burial and her reiterated "No!" to the dictator Creon, the French audience saw its own resistance to the German occupation. The Germans allowed the play to be performed presumably because they found Creon's arguments for dictatorship so convincing. The play is regularly performed and studied around the world. "Anouilh is a poet, but not a poet of words: he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing" Peter Brook

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

The body of Polynices, Antigone's brother, has been ordered to remain unburied by Creon, the new king of Thebes. Antigone's faithfulness to her dead brother and his proper burial, and her defiance of the dictator Creon, seals her fate. Originally produced in Paris during the Nazi occupation, Anouilh's Antigone was seen by the French as theatre of the resistance and by the Germans as an affirmation of authority.

Includes an interview with translator Christopher Nixon and director Brendon Fox.

Also includes an interview with Ned Chaillet, a playwright, radio producer and director for the BBC. Chaillet is the former Deputy Drama Critic for the Times of London and the London theatre critic for the Wall Street Journal-Europe. He spoke with us about Antigone in the context of World War Two, the differences bewtween the original myth of Sophocles and the Anouilh version, and Anouilh's influence on later playwrights.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:

Jordan Bridges as Haemon and Guard

Dominic Fumusa as Guard

Francis Guinan as Creon

John Hansen as Guard and Messenger

Alan Mandell as Chorus

Elizabeth Marvel as Antigone

Alley Mills as Nanny

Mandy Siegfried as Ismene

Directed by Brendon Fox. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

About the Author:

Jean Anouilh (1910-87) is regarded as one of France's best-known dramatists. ANTIGONE firmly established his popularity in France in 1944 and Peter Brook's 1950 production of Ring Round the Moon (1947) made his name in England. Twice married, he lived mainly in Switzerland for the last thirty years of his life.

About this edition

• Publisher: La Table Ronde
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0174443382
• ISBN 13: 9780174443384
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 110