Antigone (review)

 Spoilers Ahoy!

Okay two things many audience members might not realize going in to seeing this production.

First, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus, who accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother.  Upon learning the truth he blinded himself and fled the city of which he was King.

Second, this specific script was written (originally, in French) in Paris during the Nazi Occupation, so plenty of the audience were in fact either Nazis or Nazi sympathizers.

Think about that for a few seconds.  

Now this production of Antigone uses a new translation of the Jean Anouilh text, by modern American playwright Neil LaBute.  The result in most ways simply makes the story feel more modern, more familiar to an American audience on a visceral level.  In the process, let me make clear the show loses not one drop of its raw power, which is a considerable.  

Chorus (Anthony Sannazzaro) introduces us to the cast, and fills us in on some backstory as well as allowing us to get ready.  This is a tragedy.  Our central character Antigone (Anabella Nguyen) is going to die.  Her uncle King Creon (David E. Frank) used to love to prowl antique shops, way back when before a crown ended up on his head.

The essence of the plot concerns the recent civil war in Thebes between the two sons of Oedipus, who killed each other in the final bloody battle.  One was given a hero's burial.  The other, left to rot, which is seen as sacrilegeous, with the death penalty for anyone who seeks to bury him.  Both these dead princes are brothers to Antigone and her much prettier sister Ismene (Alyssa Frey).  The former intends to bury her brother, knowing this is the right thing to do.  Even if she dies.  Knowing she will die.  Knowing the body will be unburied almost immediately.  And she does not want to die.  She wants to marry Creon's son Haemon (Daniel Strausman) who loves her.  Wants to live.  But that doesn't matter.  She intends to do what is right.

Which puts the some guards (Gifford Irving, Ralph Radebaugh, Hallie Stickley) in a tougher situation even than they know.  Of course they have to watch over the rotting corpse.  And when they capture this young woman covering it, they have to bring her tied up and gagged to the palace. She says she's the King's niece, and they don't believe her.  Of course!  Then the King confirms that is exactly who she is, so he sends the guards into the next room to wait and don't talk to anyone.

So the King wants to save Antigone.  Makes sense.  If she'll just behave, he "take care" of those guards and they can go on with their lives.

But Antigone refuses.  Creon almost begs her.  Threatens, tempts, conjoles, tries his best to persuade, seeks to justify his own rules.  She does not budge.  We always know that is how it is going to do.  Antigone WILL die.  Yet we hope she won't.  Even the Chorus goes so far as to beg Creon to simply pardon her.  

Antigone, both character and story, prove inexorable.  Creon's efforts at their heart prove cruel, arrogant, tragic for himself as well as everyone else.  Neither will bend.  Neither will change.  Neither, though, ever seem anything other than human.  Just as neither come across as fanatics, given when they do believe.  And the whole ensemble creates the framework (including Dani Frank as the Page, and Martha Duncan as the Nurse) which makes all this feel real.  In a very real way one feels this fictional version of Thebes as real as Los Angeles in this, our year of the Lord 2025.  As indeed it is, in some way.

So. The story hurts.  How could it not?  The stakes feel real, the consequences vivid, powerful, and horrific.

Familiar, too.  Which is of course the point.

Warning:  For those concerned, the play includes smoking and full frontal nudity (which made me flinch because of the context).

Antigone plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 4pm until October 5, 2025 at City Garage Theatre, Bergamot, T1 Space, 2525 Michigan Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Behind The Curtain (review)

 Spoilers ahoy!

Reviewing this show is a little bit tricky--and not because I personally know the playwright, director, and most of the cast.

Behind the Curtain is not a play so much as a collection of very short plays (nothing odd in that) connected by a thread of both theme and (kinda/sorta) plot.  This framing device consists of a tour of a given theatre, with a charming volunteer (Lana Ford) talking about theatre in general while awaiting a text over whether she has been cast in this company's latest production.  Interspersed with her stories and comments are scenes--none long, some very short--about theatre in general.

The framing device doesn't really work, simply because it is too generic, and the segues to the individual scenes rarely flow.  Hardly a major flaw, although it does mean the show feels slow at first.  Instead of learning anything about this theatre, this company, all the references are about live theatre in general.  Except when the volunteer talks about herself--that introduces us to her, and she wins out hearts.

A total of twelve scenes or short plays follow, some less than two minutes long, others reaching ten or more.  Honestly every single one feels like an early draft rather than polished piece.  None of them have poor premise, nearly every single one is performed well by a talented cast (including Leah Bass, Joan Kubicek, Jess Weil, Brad C. Carter, Nancy Van Iderstine, Lauren Simon, Robert Michael Grant, Patrick Anthony, and Kevin McKim).  But apart from the fact they simply pop up on stage with almost no segue, pretty much all of them feel like they are missing some beats or some nuances to feel complete.  Which is not, I hasten to add, to say they are poor or mediocre.  But they don't feel finished.

On the other hand--four of them (while still a little unpolished) grabbed my attention and my heart.  Hit The Penny begins as a monologue, seemingly interrupted by an old woman whose identity proves a startling and eventually powerful, moving surprise.  I felt my attention engage and then re-engage several times, without giving away any startling insights which eventually arrive.  

Likewise My Newest Challenge, an almost monologue which frankly could have gone on a lot longer and I wouldn't have minded one bit.  It starts with a senior playwright kvetching about both his writers' block and his writing group's efforts to clear it up.  Hence this monologue, which proves to be exactly what he needed, as we learn a powerful life story.  

They Hate Me charts a personal crisis with a woman who is a very good stage manager, and feels depressed about the fact people hate her for doing that very job.  Her husband and boss both seek to help her work out her feelings, in a way both entertaining and sometimes a little startling. 

There there is Waitress, a poignant portrait of a former child star trying to live with her blue collar job and the scarcity of even extra roles now that she's well into her middle years.  Emotionally, this one grabbed me the most, quietly wrapping its fingers around my heart then not letting go.

My biggest complaint about these four is their length--each could easily fill a half hour or more, maybe even becoming full length.  Imperfect (as everything is) they remain excellent theatre and very much worthwhile.

Behind The Curtain plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm until August 17, 2025 at the Two Roads Theatre 4348 Tujunga Avenue, Studio City 91604.