How would you direct the opening section of Antigone up to Creon's entrance, explain the effects you wish to create for the audience.

by elishabieber93 (student)

How would you direct the opening section of Antigone up to Creons entrance, explain the effects you wish to create for the audience.

In the opening scene, the sisters Antigone and Ismene are having a secret discussion about going against the decree of the king Creon and giving there dead brothers’ body funeral rites. To show the audience that Antigone and Ismene are meeting in secret, I set this scene in an abandoned building, with minimal lighting with only a dim spotlight on each of them, to show that they do not want to be noticed and were indeed hiding away from the rest of civilisation.
I positioned Ismene and Antigone crouched down on the floor, whilst continuously staring and looking about suspiciously to show the audience that what they discussing is against the law and that they do not want to be caught. To portray this further, I would make Antigone and Ismene pause between lines and peer over there shoulder suspiciously. As Antigone is headstrong and is trying to persuade Ismene to help her bury there brothers body, I would position Antigone kneeling, slightly higher than Ismene on the stage space to portray to the audience that Antigone is the higher status out of the two.

I used an end stage for this performance as I felt it would preserve the secretive tension of the piece and make the audience feel as though they were part of the secret themselves. Ismene feels that although she loved her brother, he is dead, and they should respect the law and not bury him with honour. To portray this to the audience, I would make Ismene have a worried look upon her face.

The opening scene summarizes the moral arguments at the basis of this play, the conflicts of ...

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The opening scene summarizes the moral arguments at the basis of this play, the conflicts of opposing needs and the individual against the state and divine law opposed to a human law. In Greek society, it was considered abnormal/impossible for women to have a say or any rights in society.

The prologue, which the chorus does not overhear, sets up the whole play. The audience finds out about the two brothers, sons of Oedipus, who have just fought against each other over who should rule Thebes. Antigone suggests that Kreon's decree is aimed directly at her (line 38: "yes, me, I tell you"), since it is her duty to bury the dead in her family. Antigone's act of civil disobedience in burying her brother pits divine law against Kreon's civil decree, but it is also an act of direct defiance against her uncle. Ismene objects to help Antigone partly because of the life of shame she and her sister have already endured as the incestuous daughters of Oedipus and Jocasta. Also the Prologue sets up the idea that Antigone is the stronger of the two sisters and that Antigone could care less what others want or think is right. Lastly her loyalty is shown to for the dead, regardless of her brother's attack on Thebes.

The costume for Antigone and Ismene will be Gestapo uniforms with the red Nazi armbands and the chorus who will be prisoners who will wear overalls which will be black and white stripes with numbers across their chests.

The personalities of the two sisters; Antigone and Ismene, are as different from one another as night and day. Antigone acts as a free spirit, a defiant individual, while Ismene is content to recognize her limitations as a woman in a male dominated society.