Antigone as a mirror

A 2000-year-old drama blended with a modern world was brought alive on the stage.

Antigone captured the angst of the age.

If today's reality is a Greek tragedy, then what is the tragic flaw that will send us towards a cataclysmic denouement?

Sophocles came back to the stage this week and it seemed as though he had never left. With the revival of his 2000-year-old tragedy, Antigone – Post 9/11 took us back to ancient Greece, or was it our present world? The lines blurred as the stirring political drama wove them together.

Designed and directed by Rajiv Velicheti, this production by the MPA students of the University of Hyderabad laid bare the horrific brutality of the all-powerful State. Iconic images, like those of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers and the burning Taj Hotel in Mumbai, gave way to those of State response - the leashed, nude, hooded and abused detainees of Guantanamo Bay, riot police quelling protestors, the violent suppression of dissent leaving citizens screaming in rage and pain. Images and dialogue interplayed to render the classic current.

Antigone is a simple plot. A king orders that the body of a traitorous prince be left unburied – the harshest punishment. The traitor's mourning sister defies this order and buries him. The king, incensed by her audacity, orders her death, but is advised by the blind soothsayer to retract his judgment, as the gods are not in favour of it. He does so too late; the woman, her betrothed - the king's son - and the king's wife all kill themselves – and he is left alone.

Within this story lie the dilemmas of State, citizenship, individual rights, morality and dogmatism that we face in a terror-struck, trigger-happy world. Human rights are squelched under army tanks and prohibitive laws in exchange for safety. Any protest is deemed irrational, self-indulgent and contrary to the ‘greater good'. Velicheti attempts to give these voices of protest coherence, replacing impotent anger with clear, articulate, and purposeful questions.

The all-male cast, unchanging set and traditional Athenian dramatic garb of simple robes and open-mouthed masks were typical of Greek theatre. Creon and Teiresias were depicted by larger than life puppets - apt characterisations since both were, in a sense, bearers of the great powers of prophesy and law. The primarily black and white colour scheme served to heighten the polarity of thought evident among the well-enacted characters.

Velicheti's unusual treatment of the dialogue from C. Ananth's Telugu translation allowed for subjective interpretation of duality and dissonance. Sujith Shankar's music was dramatic, if at times overpowering. Chandrashekhar Indla lit a near-bare set simply and cleanly, while Sujit Mohanti's images and video clips were bold and self explanatory.

Short, sharp and effectively discomfiting, this was a modern Antigone , faithful to the theme of Sophocles' original, while entirely relevant today.