Antigone theatre review: Sisters in defiance
Lulu Raczka’s bold reworking of Sophocles explores the very different ways two sisters respond to tyranny
There have been various retellings of Sophocles’ tragedy, from Jean Anouilh’s 1944 allegory of Vichy France to 2024’s The Other Place by Alexander Zeldin. The latter relocated this story of the Theban princess who buries her brother against the wishes of her uncle, Creon, to contemporary English suburbia. Unlike those earlier works, Lulu Raczka’s Antigone (written for Scottish-based theatre company Groupwork) doesn’t so much map the action of Sophocles’ play onto new settings as develop an offstage version that shifts focus away from a conflict between the title character and the king to the relationship between Antigone (Eilidh Loan) and her sister Ismene (Holly Howden Gilchrist).
It is a bold premise that opens up aspects of both women’s characters while providing a resonant take on the play’s central dilemma, namely the question of whether to act when confronted by tyranny. In its opening scene, both siblings are depicted as cosseted princesses, enjoying a spot of roleplay as they order drinks and pick up men in a bar while the Theban civil war rages beyond their city gates. It’s only when the war ends, and the body of their brother Polyneices (deemed a traitor by Creon) is left to rot on the battlefield, that differences between them begin to show. While Ismene flinches at the very idea of civil defiance, Antigone feels she has no option but to oppose her uncle: ‘It feels good to do something that feels right,’ as she puts it.
There is a risk that the two-hander, played out against Milla Clarke’s backdrop of floral wallpaper, dazzling furniture and cloudy shagpile carpet, could become stifling. As this is Groupwork, led by director Finn den Hertog, the debate between these sisters is punctuated and disrupted by passages of movement choreographed by Vicki Manderson and video footage created by Lewis den Hertog, adding a visceral theatricality to lively performances and Raczka’s smart script.
Antigone, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until Saturday 10 October; picture: Mihaela Bodlovic.