Antigone

by Sophocles in a version by Don Taylor

Background pack
The National's production Sophocles and the City of Dionysia Festival Characters in the play Synopsis 2 3 5 6

Rehearsal overview 9 Interview with Polly Findlay, director 17

poster photo by Lissy Elle

Further production detailsls: nationaltheatre.org.uk/learning

This background pack is published by and copyright The Royal National Theatre Board Reg. No. 1247285 Registered Charity No. 224223 Views expressed in this workpack are not necessarily those of the National Theatre

Director Polly Findlay

National Theatre Learning South Bank London SE1 9PX T 020 7452 3388 F 020 7452 3380 E learning@ nationaltheatre.org.uk

Workpack writer Drew Mulligan Editor Ben Clare Rehearsal and production photographs Johan Persson

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The Nationals production

The production of Antigone opened in the Nationals Olivier Theatre on 30 May 2012

Characters, in order of appearance The daughters of Oedipus Antigone Jodie Whittaker Ismene Annabel Scholey Chorus of Senators of Thebes Paul Bentall Martin Chamberlain Jason Cheater Stavros Demetraki Paul Dodds CraigE Els Alfred Enoch Michael Grady-hall Tim Samuels Ross Waiton Creon, King of Thebes Christopher Eccleston Soldier Luke Norris Haemon Luke Newberry Teiresias, a blind prophet Jamie Ballard Boy Trevor Imani / Reuben Pearce / Daniel Walsh Messenger Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Eurydice, Creons wife Zo Aldrich Ensemble Jo Dockery, Emily Glenister Other parts played by members of the Company Musicians Philip Hopkins (Music Director/percussion), Joji Hirota (percussion), Tom Lessels (woodwind)

Director Polly Findlay Designer Soutra Gilmour Lighting Designer Mark Henderson Music & Sound Designer Dan Jones Movement Director Aline David Fight Director Bret Yount Projection Design Dick Straker Company Voice Work Kate Godfrey Staff Director Drew Mulligan

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Sophocles
A Chronology
496/5BC Sophocles, son of Sophillos, is born to a wealthy family in Colonus near Athens. He receives a good education involving training in music, dancing and athletics. 490 The first Persian invasion at Marathon is defeated by the Athenian Navy. It is said that the tragedian Aeschylus participated in this battle. 480 The second Persian invasion is defeated by the Athenian Navy at Salamis. Sophocles is said to have sung naked to the lyre as part of the victory celebration. Euripides is born. 472 The Persians by Aeschylus was presented. Its the oldest existing play. It shows that tragedy was already a set dramatic form. 468 Sophocles enters the drama competition at the City Dionysia Festival (see overleaf), possibly with the play Triptolemos, and is awarded first prize, beating Aeschylus. This makes him instantly famous. 462 The political leaders, Pericles and Ephialtes, reform the Athenian constitution giving more power to the people over the aristocratic elite. The golden age of Democracy is born (unless you were a woman or of the slave class). 458 Aeschylus presents The Oresteia trilogy at the Dionysia. 449 The actors competition is introduced at the Dionysia. Late 440s Sophocles play Ajax is presented. 445 Comic playwright Aristophanes is born. 443/2 Sophocles serves as Hellenotamias (treasurer of the Athenian Empire, the former Dalian League). His appointment reveals that he is a respected and politically active citizen. 442-40 His play, Antigone, wins first prize at the Dionysia. The popularity of the play means that Sophocles is elected General in the Samian War, serving alongside Pericles. Anecdotally he was not thought to be a good strategist.
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438 Sophocles beats Euripides to the first prize at the Dionysia. 431-04 The Peloponnesian War begins and marks a less optimistic period for Athens. The city is full of refugees from the Spartan invasion and plague ravages the city; Pericles is thought to be a victim. Late 430s Sophocles presents Women of Trachis. Mid 420s His play Oedipus Rex is awarded second prize at Dionysia Festival. 420/19 Sophocles becomes priest of the cult of the god Asclepios, or Healing Hero. He is thought to have provided an altar to the god in his home. There is some evidence to show that Sophocles was himself worshipped as a god under the name of Dexion. Around 415 His play Electra is first performed. 415-13 The Sicilian Expedition. The Athenians suffer total defeat in Sicily (413) and Sophocles is asked to serve as Proboulus, special state commissioner, in the emergency situation. 409 Sophocles wins first prize with his play, Philotetes. 406 Sophocles dies in Athens. Anecdotally, he died either choking on an under-ripe grape pip or by running out of breath in the middle of a recitation of Antigone. 404 Peace between Athens and Sparta is signed. 401 Oedipus at Colonus is posthumously produced by his grandson, who is also a tragic poet. It is believed that he wrote it to prove to his son Iophon that he was not senile. They never got on.

The City Dionysia Festival

The Dionysia was the second most important festival in ancient Athens in honour of the god Dionysus. It celebrated theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and later, included comedies. It was also a festival of religious ceremonies. The Dionysia was formed of two parts: rural and city. It was the City Dionysia with which Sophocles was strongly associated. Greek theatre flourished for 700 years. Ancient Greek drama was 'lost' in the Middle Ages only to be rediscovered in the Renaissance. But only 31 plays survive from this period, written by three playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. What happened The City Dionysia took place in March at one side of the Acropolis in Athens and the timing may have coincided with the first tasting of the previous years wine. It was a competition lasting five days with one dramatist presenting the majority of plays for each day. The day consisted of three tragedies, a satyr play and finally a comedy written by another author. Aeschylus Oresteia is the only surviving trilogy. The playwrights mostly chose to write about mythic figures, taking advantage of historical distance to comment on the current state of Athens. Five rich men were chosen to produce each days plays. They would hire and train the chorus, and commission the designers, costumiers and mask-makers. The actors were matched to each Producer and Chorus along with the playwright. Initially Greek plays only had a Chorus. The plays were judged by 10 judges selected from the 10 tribes of Athens. They cast their votes into an urn, and five were chosen at random. The result was taken from these five. Who was the audience? This was a popular art; audiences numbered around 15,000 for each performance. It was also state-subsidised theatre; the poor were paid to be allowed to attend. The legacy The plays should be considered as living artefacts, not archaeological fragments. There are no eye-witness accounts of the plays. Sophocles Theban Plays were part of the festival, but in fact were written over about 30 years and therefore are not strictly a trilogy.

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Characters in the play

The Royal Family Children of Oedipus and Jocasta Eteocles King of Thebes killed at the start of the play Polynices Head of Army of Argos killed at the start of the play Antigone Princess of Thebes Ismene Princess of Thebes Creon Second in Command and now King of Thebes, brother to Jocasta Eurydice His wife Haemon Son to Creon and Eurydice, betrothed to his cousin Antigone Citizens of Thebes Soldier Private sent in troop to guard Polynices body Teiresias The blind prophet of Thebes Boy Teiresias boy Chorus: the Personnel of the Thebes War Room In this production, the Chorus were assigned more specific individual roles, to suit the production's 1970s Cold-War setting. Military General Head of Military Head of Military Intelligence In charge of military manoeuvres and gathering information on military enemies of the state Communications Officer In charge of encryption and decryption of army orders and intercepted intelligence Security Head of State Security Head of internal security coordinates action against civilian and covert threats to the state Head of Secret Police In charge of secret police and interrogation and covert operations second-incommand to Head of State Security Security Analyst In charge of listening to bugs looking for seditious activity Security Archivist In charge of creating and maintaining files on the activities of enemies of the state and the general populace Security/Bodyguard In charge of War Room security Other War Room Personnel Press Officer and head of Internal Communications In charge of creating state propaganda and checking the press for seditious material Office Boy Office runner Janitor Head of War Room maintenance Other War Room Personnel (Non-Chorus) Typist Types all official and secret documents Office Girl Serves refreshments and tidies office
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Synopsis
Scene One Antigone meets her sister Ismene and informs her of the decree issued by their uncle Creon, concerning the burial of their dead brothers. The two brothers were meant to share the throne of Thebes, alternating each year, but as Eteocles refused to give up the throne his brother Polynices raised an army in Argos and has been besieging the city. Last night the brothers met in single combat and both died. Creon has ordered that the body of Eteocles should be buried with full military honours but that the body of Polynices would be left unburied as a punishment and a warning to the enemies of Thebes. Polynices is doomed to an eternity of unrest. The punishment for burying him is public stoning to death. Antigone wants her sister Ismene to help her bury Polynices body, but Ismene is afraid of going against the will of the state and pleads for Antigone not to do it. Antigone refuses and goes off to carry out the act, leaving Ismene in the palace. The Chorus celebrate the victory and describe the battle of the previous day and the fierce fight between Polynices and Eteocles at the seventh gate of Thebes. Scene Two Creon enters and delivers his maiden speech as King to the Chorus of Thebes. He describes his commitment to the State and his desire to honour all those that serve the state. He tells the Chorus of the official decree concerning the sons of Oedipus as an illustration of his policy concerning loyalty to the state. The Chorus support Creon and he asks them to implement his policies. He warns them about plotting against him and reminds them that the penalty for such actions will be death. A Soldier arrives and tells Creon that his company of Soldiers who were given the task of guarding Polynices body have discovered that it has been simply buried with a handful of dust scattered over the corpse. The Chorus warn Creon that it might be a warning from the Gods. Creon dismisses this and implies that the Soldier might have been bribed to look the other way while it was buried. He is incensed and orders the Soldier to find the culprit or he, the Soldier, will die for it. The Soldier leaves the palace vowing never to return again. The Chorus speak of the Miracle of Man. They describe his mastery of language, thought, political wisdom and government. It is a celebration of mans ingenuity but also warns against the possibility that these gifts may be turned to evil ends. Scene Three The Soldier returns with the culprit, Antigone. He describes to Creon how Antigone had returned to bury the body with ceremonial oil and found that the dust had been brushed

Creon (Christopher Eccleston) Photo: Johan Persson

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Synopsis (continued)
off her brother by the soldiers. She cursed them and buried her brother again. At this point the soldiers appeared from their hiding place and arrested her on the spot. Creon listens to this story and asks Antigone if she is guilty and she admits it. Creon dismisses the Soldier. Creon asks Antigone if she has heard about the decree forbidding the burial, and she admits that she was aware of it. Antigone declares she is proud of her actions and willing to die for it. She did not obey Creons decree as it was against the Natural Laws. Creon argues that the law of the state cannot be broken and that if they are, all order in the state will be lost, he cannot allow it even for family members. He orders that Ismene be brought before him as he saw her crying in the corridor and that would indicate that she was guilty too. Antigone and Creon argue to the point where they are set in their positions and Antigones fate is confirmed. Ismene arrives and is interrogated by Creon. He accuses her of complicity in the crime and she admits it. Antigone is incensed and will not let her sister claim the credit of doing something she was afraid to do. She softens her stance and tells Ismene that there is no point both of them dying for this: she should live. Ismene asks Creon if he will kill the woman that his son plans to marry (Creons son Haemon is betrothed to Antigone). Creon says that his son can never marry a criminal; and both sisters are led away. The Chorus try to intercede on behalf of his son but Creon reminds them that they all agreed to the decree and by logical conclusion, her death sentence. Creon is left on stage. The Chorus speak of the curse on the family of Oedipus and that once you have offended the gods every subsequent generation is doomed. They warn that mans ambition is a dangerous thing and that any man that commits a crime and is proud of the action has a flaming sword hanging over his head. Scene Four Haemon arrives to see his father. Creon expresses his wish for Haemon to understand the reason for his decision concerning his bride-to-be. Creon speaks of loyalty and the need for sons and citizens to follow the will of the ruler, right or wrong. Haemon responds that he is concerned for his fathers reputation and that he has heard many people defend and praise Antigones actions as proper and respectful to the gods. He indicates that many people think the same but are too afraid of Creon to say it. He argues the wise ruler is one that can recognise his mistakes and put them right. Creon accuses his son of being on the womans side and defying the law of the state. Haemon declares that if he kills Antigone that she wont be the only one to die that day. They argue and Creon, in fury, orders Antigone to be brought before them and killed on the spot. Haemon leaves, vowing never to see his father again. Creon tells the Chorus to carry out his orders. They question whether they should kill both sisters. Creon takes their advice and spares Ismene. He orders that Antigone should be walled up in a cave and left to die, and they are to provide her with just enough food and water that the state cannot be blamed for killing her. He leaves. The Chorus speak of the madness that love creates and that it infects not only mortals but the gods too. Scene Five Antigone is brought before them. She considers her fate and is filled with loneliness and regret for the life she has now lost. The Chorus try to cheer her, speaking of the glorious nature of her action and her death. Creon re-enters and orders the guard to take her away to her death. Antigone appeals to Creon and the chorus and justifies her action. She speaks to her dead brother and hopes that she will soon be re-united with her family

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Synopsis (continued)
who have suffered so much. Creon orders the guards to take her away and she is dragged from the room. The Chorus speak of fate and how the efforts of man ...huge armies, unsinkable fleets cannot prevent it. Antigones fate was determined a long time ago and there was nothing she could do about it. Scene Six Teiresias, the blind prophet, arrives and warns Creon that he is on the point of making a disastrous mistake. He describes the omens that he has seen through the eyes of his Boy and the unsuccessful sacrifice he made to the gods to try and understand what was happening. The gods themselves are disgusted by Creons action in denying a proper burial for Polynices and, by burying Antigone alive he has denied them of two bodies, insulting them and denying the ancient rights that even the gods themselves dont dare to question. He entreats Creon to change his mind, recognise his mistake and put it right; there is still time. Creon accuses Teiresias of taking money and being corrupt. Teiresias is provoked to tell Creon of the whole horrific consequences of his actions; the window of opportunity has now closed and the Furies are on their way to take revenge. He says that by the end of the day Creon will pay for his actions with the blood of his own child and that the whole of Thebes will suffer for his actions. Teiresias leaves. Creon is left astonished and terrified. The Chorus urge him to take action. Creon finally understands and orders that they all go together to bury Polynices and free Antigone. They pray to Dionysus, the god of Thebes, to help them cleanse the city and bring healing. Scene Seven A Messenger arrives and meets the Chorus. He tells them that he has witnessed a terrible sight and that Haemon, Creons son, has killed himself. Eurydice, Creons wife, overhears some of this and asks the Messenger to tell her everything. The Messenger describes how they went and buried Polynices body then rushed to the cave to rescue Antigone but when they got there they heard shouting and screaming from within the cave and saw that someone had already forced the entrance. inside, they found Haemon crying over the body of Antigone, who had hanged herself. Creon begged Haemon to come away but in anger Haemon lunged for his father. Creon leapt out of the way and Haemon turned the sword upon himself and died, cradling Antigone in his arms. Eurydice leaves in silence. The Chorus tell the Messenger to follow her to make sure she is safe. Creon returns with Haemons body. He laments the death and takes full responsibility for it. The Messenger arrives and tells Creon that his wife Eurydice has just killed herself with a knife. She cursed Creon as the murderer. Creon enters the room to see his dead wife. He looks for a sword to take his own life but can't find one. He is a broken man and leaves. The Chorus speak of how man must honour the gods law and that wisdom is found through suffering.
Antigone (Jodie Whittaker) Photo: Johan Persson
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Rehearsal overview
Staff Director Drew Mulligan writes about the rehearsal process. Rehearsal exercises are highlighted in this colour. WORKSHOP WEEK February 2012: NT Studio Prior to the start of rehearsals we spent a week at the NT Studio workshopping ideas for the main production. The main area of exploration was how we could make the Chorus fit with our idea of the world of the play. Although we are creating the original period of the play we are taking major thematic and stylistic elements from the Cold War to help tell the story. The action will take place in the Operations Room or War Room of Thebes as its new leader Creon struggles to re-establish order after a bloody civil war. The battle has just ended and we now witness the aftermath. The Chorus will man the operations room. The design team have taken the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film Dr Strangelove as a stylistic inspiration, along with images of the GDR (the German Democratic Republic, otherwise known as East Germany, was a state established in 1949 and dissolved in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall) and the 2006 film The Lives of Others about the Stasi (secret police) of East Berlin. Though we are creating a fictionalised world for the play to happen in, we are very keen that the actions and setting have some authenticity. It also doesnt seem like a world where the Chorus would speak as one, which is traditional in productions of Greek tragedies. The workshop week was very useful in helping us explore how this war room might operate and what individual jobs or roles the Chorus might have within it. It would also help us to identify different characters and voices within the Chorus with a view to dividing up their lines and making them a group of individuals. With this in mind we explored some background research on the GDR and watched parts of The Lives of Others to examine how the Stasi operated and what routines they used to monitor or spy on their own people. I organised a trip for the group to the Churchill War Rooms, guided by the head historian James Taylor. This trip was fantastic and we were fortunate to be taken into rooms that are not ordinarily open to the public. It gave us an extremely useful insight into the daily routines of the operating staff and a clear idea about how a war could be run from such a bunker. We returned to the NT Studio and spent the rest of the week coming up with routines that could be run in such a war room. Once these were established we combined them with a movement vocabulary established within the group by our movement director Aline David. We came up with some methods that would keep a war room operating while focussing on certain individuals or tasks. This was by slowing the other actors down or by perhaps muting their actions. At the end of the week we had created a useful vocabulary for the world of the play and a way for the chorus to operate as individuals, but also as one, as a part of the war room of Thebes. REHEARSAL WEEK 1 April 2012: Rehearsal Room 1 at the NT Tuesday Once we were nicely warmed-up we then had the model box showing led by designer Soutra Gilmour and the director Polly Findlay. Soutra talked through her design process, including wanting to react to the specific architecture of the Olivier Theatre. This production is set in a world that stylistically borrows heavily from the Cold War era and most especially the GDR. The Brutalist design of the Olivier then forms the perfect backdrop to our Theban War Room. Brutalism is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s that came from the modernist architectural movement. Brutalist buildings are typically blockish and have straight lines, and are often made of concrete.

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Rehearsal overview (continued)

The National Theatre is a significant example of Brutalism. We sat round a table and Polly introduced the play and her ideas for the production. She gave a topic to each member of the company to research and report back on in week two. These ranged from research on the classical world of Ancient Greece to investigations of mid-20th-century Radar systems (for Kobna Holdbrook-Smith who plays the Messenger). The aim is to get a strong understanding of the classical world of the play and of the world of our production, mid-20th-century Cold War era. Aline started work on some movement vocabularies that we will use throughout the production. We worked on a movement scale from 1 to 8, where 1 was a freeze and 8 was running. More on this later. in the afternoon, we did a read through which went very well. Wednesday The cast began the day doing circuit training with Aline, then we sat round the table and started to unit the play. As Polly describes it, a different unit starts when the air changes in the room. If someone says, in the middle of a conversation, Im pregnant and that is a new piece of information to those in the room, that becomes the start of a new unit. So we spent the rest of the morning slowly working through the play looking for the moments when the air changes. Once we have identified these units we then name them. We have also created scene numbers, as the play exists almost as a single scene. This task really helps to create a shared understanding of the play and the major events that happen throughout it. Unit-ing is not an exact science by any means but it provokes a very healthy discussion and engages everyone with the whole play and not just their own role. In the afternoon, we were visited by the Classics scholar Laura Swift. She spent the afternoon filling us in on the context of the play, the history of Thebes and the story of Oedipus. She also helped us with some pronunciation issues. This was an extremely useful session and the company were full of questions. Thursday From a discussion about the GDR and military regimes with one of the cast, Paul Bentall, Polly was keen to see if it was possible to get someone from the military to come and speak to the company, and perhaps drill them. After discussions with Polly I sent the Ministry of Defence an email with what we were looking for and by

The company in rehearsal Photo: Johan Persson

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Rehearsal overview (continued)

lunchtime they had found someone to come to speak to us in the afternoon. We had a very useful discussion with Lieutenant Colonel Richard Frampton Hobbs in which he agreed to find a drill sergeant who would come and shout authentically at the company. He would then return later in the rehearsal process to cast an expert eye on the pseudomilitary routines that we have established and tell us how effective they are. We look at other translations of Antigone to check how they reference the gods. We wondered whether the God mentioned in the text had been translated as such to fit into our mono-theistic Judeo-Christian tradition, as opposed to mentioning the gods. It seems in this particular case the reference to God refers to Zeus and most of the other translations name him directly. WEEK 2 Monday The whole company met at Stage Door ready to board the coach for a trip to the disused secret nuclear bunker at Kelvedon Hatch in Essex (secretnuclearbunker.com). It was built in the 1950s when the threat of nuclear war was very real. It was created as an early warning bunker and refuge for government officials. It was the closest deep bunker to London. The bunker had provisions to keep the inhabitants alive for 3 months, though the prospect of large-scale destruction of a nuclear strike meant that there probably wouldnt be much of a country left to come out for. Our trip to the Churchill War Rooms on Friday had felt like a celebration of plucky British grit; this had an altogether different feel. It felt haunted by fear. Even though you could survive a nuclear strike down here, what would you emerge to find? The operations room was stuffed full of old computers and telephones, futile attempts to control a country that would have been almost completely destroyed. This feeling of total war, and of trying to operate in extreme conditions was very useful to the company. We are setting the production in our own version of the Cold War. Though nuclear strike is not a threat, the feeling of total war, of being surrounded, is very real. The period of the bunker and the type of technology of the time match our idea for the production and the duties of the bunker officers matched very closely our idea of the Chorus. The worth of this trip will become apparent as we start to build operational systems for our war room of Thebes later this week. Tuesday Polly set the cast to create systems to operate in the bunker. The cast were separated into three groups and given the task of creating a system for 20 people, the number in the cast, to operate the security of the bunker, the army and security of Thebes and lastly the system to maintain the operation of the bunker. We ran the same task in the workshop week and it was very effective. We had reports from cast member Tim Samuels on Stasi surveillance techniques and Emily Glenister on the life of women in Ancient Greek society. Wednesday Having finished unit-ing the play we started to action the scenes.
Christopher Eccleston (Creon) in rehearsal Photo: Johan Persson
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Rehearsal overview (continued)

There are many different ways to describe actioning but basically it is a method to make sure that the actor is trying to affect the other characters on stage with every line they say. So, we take a line or thought and ascribe a transitive verb to it. This verb describes what the actor is trying to make the actor they are speaking to feel. An example is I slap you: you want the other actor to feel slapped by the line. This is a slow process and it takes a bit of time to get into the swing of it but it is very effective. After the break, Aline worked with the Chorus on the systems created the day before. We worked on the bunker maintenance system which was led by Jason Cheater. We had people in charge of the water, measuring the air quality, making the food and Christopher Eccleston in charge of pest control. Into this system Polly likes to add some variables. In this case there was air poisoning, which led to various characters being sick. WEEK 3 Monday We spent the first part of the morning working on the Soldiers speech to Creon, describing how he had witnessed Antigone burying her brother, Polynices. We ran the scene a few times and then Polly tried a couple of exercises with Luke Norris, who plays the Soldier. Firstly, she asked all those listening to grab a pencil and paper and, as Luke spoke, they had to draw what he was describing. It made Luke really slow down and invest in every image that he was describing so as to convey exactly what he had seen to the artists. This was a very effective way of forcing the listeners to really engage their own imaginations and to create a set of images in their minds for this scene. These images will now stay with all those on stage and cannot help but improve the scene. Secondly, Polly asked Luke to repeat the speech but this time create a sculpture while doing it. Each image he described meant that he had to select and place a new object on the sculpture. These objects didnt have to have any connection with what he was saying; rather it was Lukes care in selecting and placing them that had the strongest effect on the way he spoke. The speech became slow and very specific and we really listened and connected to every thought. We looked at the Chorus speech The Miracle of Man, which takes place after Creon has dismissed the Soldier to find out who buried the body of Polynices. This is an ode to mans capacity to learn and transform the world around him but warns against letting his power corrupt his morals and his faith in the gods. During this speech Aline has choreographed movement for the war room of Thebes. Within this movement there are moments of suspension where everyone except the speaker goes into slow motion, moments where only one person is moving while the others are frozen etc. These techniques are great at animating the speech; they also bring a filmic vocabulary to the stage as they allow the director to focus the audiences attention on certain individuals where usually in theatre everything is in a wideshot. Tuesday We focused on levels of attention, between what is going on in the room and the characters work. The task was to keep the Chorus active but not draw focus from what is going on in the centre of the room. We did a series of exercises where someone spoke and some people carried on working but split their attention between listening and the work they were doing. For example, 70% focus on the speaker and 30% attention on work still allowed the work to get done but as an audience we were very focussed on the speaker. We continued this exercise for a while with small groups, gradually building to working with the whole Chorus. It was extremely effective.

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Rehearsal overview (continued)

WEEK 4 Tuesday We were joined by Company Sergeant Major Gareth Waddell, of the Irish Guards, to take the company through some drill training. We hadnt warned the company about this as we thought it would be a nice surprise, which it certainly was. We didnt introduce him either, because he was keen to dive straight in. Hed trained recruits at Sandhurst so felt that he could get a handle on a group of actors! He suddenly called the company to form a line, tallest to shortest, and set about training them. For the next hour he drilled the actors to within an inch of their lives from basic standing positions to turning, marching, saluting and, of course, shouting. Those that didnt perform to the expected standard had to do press-ups. The idea for this was that we needed to inject a military bearing into the Chorus and the company as a whole. We feel that our Thebes is a state where everyone would have taken part in some sort of military training. The effect this has on your physicality is significant: you can spot an ex-military person a mile off just by looking at the way they stand and sit. We needed this to be embedded and we wanted it to be authentic. After an hour of training the company were looking very impressive. We were joined by Major Rupert Hill, Second in Command of The London Regiment, who took us through the command structure of the British army, the differences in how the army acts in peace time and on a war footing, and how the army polices itself. Major Hill had been stationed in Germany before the reunification of the country and was able to give us an insight into the atmosphere of fear that must have pervaded the ranks of the East German military, where a staggering one in every 10 soldiers was also a member of the secret service. He likened it to a police state where there is a constant pressure not to do anything wrong. He suggested that it might be like press night, performing in front of the critics, an experience that the whole company understood. Wednesday We tried an exercise with Annabel Scholey who plays Ismene and Jodie (Antigone). There is a scene where the sisters argue about whether Ismene should share Antigones guilt of the crime of burying their brother without having committed the act. This is a great scene, and to help each actor connect with what the other was saying Polly asked Jodie and Annabel to repeat the last two words of what the other actor had spoken, with a question mark after them. For example: Ismene: Please, my sister, dont despise me! Let me share the honour and die with you. Antigone: With you? Youve no right to claim the honour for doing. What you were afraid to do. One death. Will be enough. Why should you die? Ismene: You die? Because life without you wont be worth living. Antigone: Worth living? Ask Creon to protect you. Hes your uncle...

Paul Dodds (Chorus) in rehearsal Photo: Johan Persson

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Rehearsal overview (continued)

This exercise has a clever effect of making the actors really listen to each other and helps to make each line an answer and correction of what the other character has just said. It also helps prevent the argument from becoming a shouting match. Friday We looked at the re-entrance of Antigone when she is preparing for death and we worked out routines that the Chorus might perform when preparing someone for the Death Penalty. Antigone was frisked, had a medical check, signed for her clothes and had her photo taken. It was clinical and chilling. Antigone was left seated alone. We experimented with different ways of restraining Jodie for this speech and finally ended with her being dragged off screaming by Ross Waiton (Chorus). This is not a heroic noble death and the anger and fear felt by Jodie was very moving. WEEK 5 Monday We explored the Messenger scene with the actor, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. The Messenger arrives and starts breaking terrible news to two low-status characters. Very soon they are joined by Eurydice, who overhears their conversation. He then has to deliver the terrible news to her that her son has killed himself after finding Antigone dead, and that he blamed and cursed his father, her husband Creon, for it. This is a very difficult speech to deliver. Kobna and Polly agreed that any overengagement of the speaker in the horror of the images he had seen would seem self indulgent and lessen the impact of the images themselves. His duty is to tell Eurydice everything he has seen. We agreed that the Messenger had a friendship with Haemon and Eurydice and so he felt compelled to tell her everything from a personal as well as a professional standpoint. Polly marked out two squares on the floor, one for Kobna to work out the facts that he had seen, and the other with details that he would actually deliver to Eurydice. It was very effective in making the images explicit but it had the effect of lessening the action towards Eurydice which was to give her all the information or to respect her by not sugar-coating the news. Tuesday We had our first proper run-through of the play. It lasted 1 hour 47 minutes, which was far too long. But it had some great moments and revealed some areas to work on. Thursday There will be a clock on stage giving the time of events, so I spent some of the morning trying to create a plot of the clock through the play. It means trying to set a time for each event and guessing how long the intervals are between them. There are moments when the time needs to jump forward two hours, for instance. These time jumps always happen during the Chorus

Jodie Whittaker (Antigone) in rehearsal Photo: Johan Persson

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Rehearsal overview (continued)

odes. We want to make our clock spin forward during these scenes. [The clock later became static during previews rather than showing the time in the play]. Saturday morning We ran the first 30 pages of the play, up until Teiresias arrives. Polly told the company that we have the structure of our production, and now it is time to fill it with emotional intensity. The second big note was that the company needed to go through the middle of each line and not glide over the top of it. The actors need to meet the story head on and engage with it. Greek tragedy gives an actor the opportunity to go to areas of human experience where other dramas do not take you. Basically, the instruction was to not hold back. It was a great note session and a real call to arms. WEEK 6 Monday Polly had decided that we needed to get to the point quicker in some speeches so she had cut some lines. The company accepted them with good grace and with a collective understanding that the play would benefit from this tightening up. With these cuts still fresh in our heads we did a speed line run of the whole play. We sat in a circle and spoke the play to each other, playing the full intention and emotion of the line, just quicker. We read the whole play in 50 minutes and observed that some parts of the play had never felt better. This energised the whole company and gave them an understanding of the level of attack required to perform this play; the actors and the audience should be breathless by the end of it. Tuesday I worked on the trial scene with Jodie and Annabel. We wanted to look at this scene with regard to the new blocking that had been created. The sisters are separated and are sat facing away from each other. We wanted to make sure that this blocking didnt affect their connection with each other and lessen the drive of their argument. We used an exercise where the person listening repeated the important word from the speakers speech before she then said her line. This activation word is the word or phrase that makes you want to speak. This word becomes the word that makes you breathe in before you speak. This was a really useful exercise because Jodie and Annabel didnt always choose the same activation words. It really helps the actors to listen and think about what the other actor has said and to connect with each other and the argument. Wednesday We did a speed-run of the show. The note was to think faster and not compromise on the clarity or the acting. There was plenty to note, especially not to shout too much and give away authority. Everyone needed to try more successfully to keep a lid on the situation.

Annabel Scholey (Ismene) and Jodie Whittaker (Antigone) in rehearsal Photo: Johan Persson
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Rehearsal overview (continued)

That afternoon some of the production staff came to see a run-through, as well as Director of the NT Nicholas Hytner and Associate Director Ben Power. Inevitably there was tension and anticipation in the room. This run was a real improvement on the mornings run, and we felt relieved and excited at the potential. Thursday We worked through Pollys notes from the run through. We were lucky enough to have Major Rupert Hill present to cast his expert eye over the military routines that we had created and examine the believability of our Theban War Room. After rehearsals, Aline and I spent an hour with Major Rupert and received some great feedback. We hoped to implement this the next day. Overall he felt that we had managed to recreate the atmosphere very accurately, which was very reassuring to hear. Friday Once notes were given we had another run through. The actors were getting into the rhythm of the piece now and this was their best run yet. It was clear that there were still many things to work on. The best use of time was to prepare for the technical rehearsals by fixing blocking and scenechange issues rather than acting and character notes as these could be done during the dress rehearsals and previews. We started with the opening of the show, making all the entrances quicker and cutting out superfluous moments. This was our last day in the rehearsal room. We started technical rehearsals the next afternoon. Wed had an amazing time in this room, creating the outline and filling in the details of what we hoped would be a thrilling and moving production. The production was at a great stage and we were all really excited to get into the theatre.

Christopher Eccleston (Creon) Photo: Johan Persson

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Interview with Polly Findlay, director

What were your initial reactions on first reading Antigone? It was exciting to come across a two-and-ahalf-thousand-year-old play with a woman at its centre. Greek plays are part of our DNA, theyre the building blocks of our imagination. Weve rarely come up with better stories. Most movies that were familiar with are reworkings of Greek texts. This play is incredibly modern in its structure, it moves really fast, theres no 'faff' to it; it often is ahead of its audience. It made me think of a Channel 4 political thriller. So did that have an influence on the production? I definitely wanted it to be accessible: Ive seen other productions of ancient texts havent felt relevant to my world. It felt important that the machine of power at the heart of the play was tangible to us and that we could have some kind of real imaginative purchase on it. But at the same time we wanted to avoid making it an indictment of any particular political regime. We wanted to find bits of vocabulary from political thrillers wed enjoyed and bits of vocabulary from things we knew about from various political regimes, things that were part of our collective imagination. We borrowed quite a lot from a film called The Lives of Others and Dr Strangelove as well as real-life war bunker locations, like the Government War Rooms or Kelvedon Hatch. What were you looking for in the casting of Antigone and Creon? The difficulty with the play
Christopher Eccleston (Creon), Director Polly Findlay and Luke Newberry (Haemon) in rehearsal Photo: Johan Persson

on the page is that Antigone appears to be the goodie and Creon the baddie. We as audiences really like to back an underdog. But in casting Creon we wanted someone who the audience would like, who was charismatic on stage, with a big presence, humanity, vulnerability and charisma, so Creon didnt seem completely like a big bad wolf. For Antigone, we really wanted to find someone with presence, who wasnt going to be girlie or apologetic, and we found all that in Jodie Whitaker. What were the challenges of the rehearsal process? Creating the role of the chorus felt like a core thing. Its the greatest challenge for anyone staging the play now. The Chorus feels like a convention very far removed from us now, although when you look for it, there are choric elements to everyday life. The people that run London Underground are basically choric. We wanted to find a way of making those people real and give them an individual and collective identity. So in rehearsing that aspect of the play I've had to decide how much you want to see them, or focus on them. From a personal point of view, moving that number of people around the stage is something I havent had

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Interview with Polly Findlay, director (continued)

to do before so it was a learning curve. The challenge with texts that old and dense is to make them feel transparent and the throughline considered, even though that thought is coined by someone in a different culture and with a different thought process. The play has quite a large sound design. What are the elements you wanted to bring out through this? It felt very important in terms of creating atmosphere, which is perhaps an obvious thing to say. We wanted to create a very specific world for the war room bunker in terms of the horror taking place there, and the conveyer belt sort of bureaucracy. So we wanted to set the tone with the sound design. We also wanted to find a way of channelling the Ancient Greeks religious understanding and make sense of that. Dan Jones [Music and Sound Designer] did a lot of work on finding the tension between a bureaucratic, banal sense of horror, and particularly in the choral sections a heightened, more angular, other-worldly landscape. The playwrights intention and its not often obvious in reading it is that the choral lines are musical. We wanted to fulfil the playwrights instructions to lift it out of naturalism, to heighten the atmosphere of the play, to give it a metaphorical currency. Did the production develop a lot in the preview performances? Its always fascinating that when you put a play in front of an audience you see it through other peoples eyes. It has changed quite a lot. Weve found a way of driving the pace, and weve tried to plant more seeds earlier on to show Creons humanity before he hits the big tragic wall at the end. Weve had to do a bit of reblocking to focus things. Its been a process of honing technical elements and ensure were all singing from the same song sheet.

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