Antigone (Methuen Drama, Methuen Student Edition) - Softcover

Jean Anouilh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413695409 ISBN 13: 9780413695406

Publisher: A & C Black Publishers, Ltd., 2009

Synopsis

'Anouilh is a poet, but not of words: he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing' Peter Brook

Jean Anouilh, one of the foremost French playwrights of the twentieth century, replaced the mundane realist works of the previous era with his innovative dramas, which exploit fantasy, tragic passion, scenic poetry and cosmic leaps in time and space. Antigone, his best-known play, was performed in 1944 in Nazi-controlled Paris and provoked fierce controversy. In defying the tyrant Creon and going to her death, Antigone conveyed to Anouilh's compatriots a covert message of heroic resistance; but the author's characterisaation of Creon also seemed to exonerate Marshal Petain and his fellow collaborators. More ambivalent than his ancient model, Sophocles, Anouilh uses Greek myth to explore the disturbing moral dilemmas of our times.

Commentary and notes by Ted Freeman.

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: A & C Black Publishers, Ltd.
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0413695409
• ISBN 13: 9780413695406
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 75