Antigone (Broadway Theatre Archive) [DVD]

Amazon.com French playwright Jean Anouilh’s modernized version of the classic Greek tragedy Antigone sets the story in the sleek palace of a fascist state ruled by Creon (veteran stage actor Fritz Weaver). His niece Antigone (Genevieve Bujold, Dead Ringers) is horrified by Creon’s order that the body of her brother–who led a rebellion against the state–be left on the battlefield to rot. When she violates the edict, guards haul her before Creon, who struggles to convince her that his reasons are honorable, despite the ugly consequences, but Antigone remains steadfast, even though her death will result. The great strength of Antigone is that there is no easy solution to the conflict, which leads to disaster for everyone involved. Bujold glows as the obsessed, martyrlike Antigone; Weaver brings passion to Creon’s mixture of reason and tyranny; and Stacy Keach (Fat City) plays the narrating Chorus with a weary, ironic detachment. –Bret Fetzer Product Description With fierce originality, this powerful adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy presents a world of honor, treachery and fateful consequences. Acclaimed actress Genevieve Bujold skillfully combines elements of zealotry and idealism in her affecting portrait of Antigone. Jean Anouilh’s retelling of “Antigone” stages the inescapably wrenching central confrontation between Antigone and Creon by presenting Bujold and Fritz Weaver seated at a long, executive-suite table–a hallmark of Anouilh’s play. The New York Times critic, John J. O’Connor, lauded this “Antigone” as “well acted, well directed and beautifully staged.”

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