From the opening, this modern take on one of Classical literature's most revered iterations, Sophocles' Antigone, grabs a hold of you. A flourish of percussion melds with an incursion of sonic gasps. The audience is greeted with the dystopian vision of a crumbling, decaying edifice, forming part of the enveloping set's backdrop.
Antigone (Andrea Demetriades) and Ismene (Louisa Mignone) are spectral silhouettes, casting dwarfing shadows on the other half of this ruin. Antigone's manic grace is intensified in the floor lighting, Ismene's characteristic dithering literally soaked in a salient bathtub.
There are many insightful accents to Sport For Jove's fresh take on Greek tragedy, directed by Damien Ryan and Terry Karabelas. This play is a punchy modern reworking of the ancient and universal themes of transgression and trans-generational trauma. This newly penned adaptation, also from Ryan, maintains all the lyrical eloquence of the original while making it heartrendingly current, delving into the discourse of the ideological minefield of extremism in the age of terror.
Creon (William Zappa) is a force to be reckoned with; his duplicitous, gut-churning spin in the early scenes surpasses the smiling assassin all too familiar from today's political elite. This hubris is then matched, as always, with an inevitable yet nonetheless overwhelming downfall.
Ryan and Karabelas' vision, carried out rigorously in striking vignettes punctuated by visceral choral interventions by an ensemble of accomplished actors, bleeds an emotional and textual understanding few productions possess. This ruinous world of bodies in trauma is simultaneously agonising and life-affirming, an important exploration of the interminable conundrum of justice.
Sport For Jove presents Antigone, at Seymour Centre to 22 Oct
