This Old Story Still Matters

“Antigone” is one old story, but the Greek tragedy has plenty of drama, and that’s timeless.

That’s why Shakespeare ’70 is promising a “very modern” evening of drama as it presents Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of Sophocles’ ancient play about the title character, the daughter of Oedipus. The story follows Antigone after her two brothers – Eteocles and Polynices – die fighting on opposite sides in battle. King Creon rules that Polynices, who fought against Creon, not be buried. 

Antigone not only disobeys the king, but insists on taking responsibility for her actions, even though Creon is willing to look the other way because Antigone is engaged to the king’s son.

Anouilh wrote his adaptation in 1943 when France was under Nazi occupation. And though the writer denied any political leanings, it’s widely believed that there are parallels between his adaptation of the story and what was happening in France at the time.

“He was quoted more than once as saying he was not a political person, he was an apolitical person, but for me, the message in his version of this play is pretty powerful and pretty clear,” says Janet Quartarone, who is directing “Antigone” at the West Windsor Arts Center, Sept. 30 through Oct. 8. “So it was his way of sending a message.”

Shakespeare ‘70’s version will be set in modern time with modern dress. Anouilh set his story in the 1940s, but Quartarone says setting the play today is truer to Anouilh’s spirit, because the idea is to show how this story remains relevant.

“I think our message is, ‘It’s right here, right now,’” she says. “Wherever you are that’s where this is and that’s where this is happening.”

This production will mark Shakespeare ’70’s debut at the West Windsor Arts Center. The classical theater company presents an annual Shakespeare play at Kelsey Theatre on the campus of Mercer County Community College and has, until this show, presented fall and winter productions on the campus of The College of New Jersey. But financial matters led to the group looking for a new venue for its fall and winter performances.

The space is a multi-purpose room without a stage. That, Quartarone says, allows the cast and crew to use the entire room, and not just a stage. The goal is to use the space in a different and exciting way for people who have already been there.

“They’re right on top of us and we’re right on top of them,” Quartarone says of the audience’s interaction with the actors. “They should be able to see our actors sweat, and they should be able to see the actors’ eyes and the realizations and the moments of truth.”

Anouilh made a few changes to Sophocles’ story, including making the chorus one character, known as the Prologue. Sarah Stryker, a student at the College of New Jersey from Lawrenceville, is taking on that role for Shakespeare ’70.

“It’s been interesting because a Greek Chorus will be sort of more impartial,” Stryker says. “They’ll put forward the essential message of the show, but they won’t really take a stance on anything, they won’t guilt the audience into anything and they won’t be accusatory.”

Quartarone says the one-person chorus format helps personalize the message that this story, with its themes of war and the inherent failings of humankind, are always with us.

“But we can do what we can do,” she says. “We can take one more step, you can be the one that doesn’t stop at, ‘I can’t, I’m just one person. What can I do?’ It’s that call to arms, it’s that call to conscious.”

Shakespeare ’70 will perform “Antigone” at the West Windsor Arts Center on Alexander Road in West Windsor on Sept 30, Oct. 1 and Oct. 7-8 at 8 p.m., and on Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15, $12 seniors, $10 students. For information, or to make reservations, call 609-882-5979 or go to www.shakespeare70.org.