Antigone
Inspired by the work of Sophocles

We do not simply restage Antigone.
We strip it to its essence.
Not just the words, but the weight of them.
Not just the conflict, but the cost.

Alan Lucien Øyen

 

Antigone is a new, radical reimagining of Sophocles’ tragedy, fusing the poetry of movement with the expressive force of text and spoken word. Crafted by Alan Lucien Øyen, one of Norway’s most restless and compelling contemporary choreographers, writers, and directors, the work brings to the stage the performing arts ensemble he founded two decades ago, winter guests, a creative unit comprising dancers, actors, writers, and designers. Joining them are leading collaborators and dancers from Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal, in a rare and meaningful artistic encounter: Øyen was the first choreographer invited to create a new, full-length work for the feted ensemble following the death of its founder.

As Øyen remarks, “Our Antigone is not merely a staging of Sophocles’ text, but a daring reimagining of his timeless tragedy through the physical poetry of Tanztheater, merged with spoken word and contemporary dance.”

More than a retelling, the work is a rediscovery of the play’s ideas – through movements, words and situations. The performance foregrounds a profoundly human mode of expression, confronting the unresolved dilemmas at the heart of the play: duty, dignity, morality, and the complexity of power.

In an era when what is wrong is branded as evil and what is right is dismissed as sanctimonious, where is God in all this chaos? Human dignity and humility are at stake in a struggle for respect for human law.

Through howling wind and screaming birds, through desperate grief and violent tyranny, the scenes of the play hurl their meaning back at our present-day dilemmas. Demanding and arresting, political without didacticism and lyrical without ornament, Antigone asks the urgent question: what does it mean to act when law and justice part ways?