Monday 18th April 2016 - Antigone (Criteria One - Unit 4)

Themes of the play

• Fate
• Free will
• Law/morality
• power and pride
• determination
• devastation
• consequence of choice
• death

Social Cultural Historical political content

• 441 BC - festival of Dionysus, one of performance as part of a competition - This took place in March each year and went on for four days, this was a public holiday so that everyone could go. The city gave money to the poor so they could also go, over the four days, seventeen plays were shown these were a mixture of tragedy, comedy and satyr.

• No women on stage on stage or in the audience - Only men could act in ancient Greece, they performed all of the parts which included men women and children. All actors had to be athenian citizens. 

• Chorus demonstrate the view of society - The purpose of this was that they were commentating on what was happening in the play, and was another point of view for the audience. - Unlike the main actors the chorus could be anyone, they often served as the communities opinion which was often contrasting to the opinion of main characters in the play. For example in Antigone there is a scene where the chorus act as a duty to what Creon is saying. 

• Interactive experience - It was a common thing for the audience to be involved in a performance. This was so they did not get bored and throw things at the performers or become a distraction, by interacting with the audience they feel more involved and therefore were less likely to cause a problem to disrupt the actors. 

Narrative and plot

Antigone and Ismene's father, Oedipus had two sons names Eteocles and Polynices, upon their fathers death it was decided that in turn both of them would take the throne for a year each . However Eteocles refused to stand down and Polynices marches through Thebes causing a battle between the two, where both of them died, making Creon king. Once king he ordered Eteocles to be buried in honour and Polynices to be left unburied. However Antigone burys the body that was ordered to be left, angering Creon, he imprisions her as well as her sister - Ismene. When Creon interrogates them both Antigone wishes to be punished by herself whereas Ismene wants to share the guilt and blame, and is desperate to save her sister. They both get taken away by the guards. Haemon confronts his father about the imprisonment of his betroved lover. Antigone kills herself to escape Creon, when Haemon finds her, he kills himself to be with her in death. When Creon finds them both he is driven mad with guilt and prays to the gods for help and forgivness.

Original staging conditions

• Acting style - Because the theatre was so large and even the audience sitting on the front row were at least 10 meters away from the stage the actors had to use large gestures that could be seen from the furthest seats. Although many theatres were constructed so that sound could easily be travelled to all of the seats the actors had to do this so that everyone could see and hear all of the characters. This is because many greek plays were complicated so it was important that the audience saw all parts of it to understand the themes and plot well. The actors had a non-naturaistic approach to acting, for example all of the gestures had to be over the top so because facial expressions would have been invisible to the majority of the audience. The actors were always accompanied by the chorus, they would often sing and dance giving the audience background information in-between the main scenes. The chorus was made up of between 15 and 18 men.

• Performance venue - Behind the orchestra there  a skene, this was used as a backstage where actors could change their costumes and masks, this also served a second purpose of showing the audience the location of the play which was usually a building like a house or a palace. There were typically two or three doors leading out to the orchestra where the actors could enter and exit. Sometimes these were painted to give a specific scenery to the play. There was a raised acting area that was called the proskene, this is the modern version of a proscenium arch stage. The audience were sat on benches that were built up on the side of a hill, because of this greek theatres were only ever built on a hill to achieve the right structure and shape. A typical theatre could fit up to 15,000 audience members, they were not enclosed so the audience could see each other and the surrounding location as well as the main actors and chorus. 

• Costumes and props - Masks were commonly used in Greek theatre, this was so the actors could play different characters including women as women were not allowed in the theatre. This was also so actors could multi role effectively without the audience getting the characters confused. Also from a religious perspective the mask was a form of protection form the gods, one example of this is if an actor was playing a character who had done something that had broken the law or had some evil traits, the mask would prevent the gods from punishing the actor for the characters mistake. However using a mask had some challenges, these were...

1. It is hard to project your voice when wearing a mask, this is because there were no mouth holes and therefore you have to speak a lot louder and clearer to make sure that the audience can hear you. Speaking with a mask on naturally sounds more muffled and the sound is not traveling out, it is being blocked. Although I tried to project my voice as much as possible I think I could improve this, when we use the masks in the final performance I would have had practice doing this and therefore my voice will sound clearer.
2. When performing with a mask on you have to rely on your body language more as your facial expressions are being hidden. This means that actions we do have to be more exaggerated to compensate, this helps the audience to keep engaged as we are fully projecting out.

The masks sometimes fall down your face and as the eye holes are small and therefore you cannot see. This means that when you rehearse you are aware of everyone and everything around you so that you can be spaticially aware when performing with the mask on.

Tragic actors wore garments that had elaborate pattens woven on them, these were similar to clothing worn by priests and musicians, these actors wore thick soled boots to give additional height to the perfumers, this was thought to help the actor project more. 

Characters

• Mythological figures (Dionysus) - These characters often wore saffron coloured clothing that were high quality and impressive, there were rich colours like purple and gold with jewels and heavy cloaks.
• Goddesses of women with a high rank - Often were robed in purple and gold as these colours shows the wealth of the character.
• Matrons - Monochrome colours like black white and grey to show the contrast in wealth and hierarchy, this cloth was finely embroidered and wore veil like material on the head. 
• Queens and Princesses - Long purple robes decorated with gold stars, to show the wealth. 
• Warriors - These character wore a variety of armour like helmets and scarlet tunics that were richly embroidered, to show their status.

Comic actors wore lose body stockings that were padded in particular areas to exaggerate their comedic element.

• Lighting and sound - Because there was no electricity available in this era, all of the plays were lit by natural light, because of this plays were usually shown in daylight. This means that they could not use special effects to enhance the performance, the actors had to be interesting enough by themselves to not bore the audience without any effects.

Background of the plays first performance

Antigone was written by Sophocles, it focuses around the conflict of the power of the state and individual conscience. It is a tragedy that is thought to be written around 442BC, it was the first of the "three Theban plays" to be written, however chronologically it is the third. After it was written it was premiered at the festival of Dionysus, that took place once a year and was the only time that theatre was shown.

The playwright

Antigone was originally written by Sophocles, he is often thought of as the best playwright out of the three at the time in ancient Greece - ( Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus). He is thought to have been born in 497BC in Attica(Greece) before the battle of Marathon. Sophocles came from a very wealthy family and wrote more tragedies than any other genre of theatre. His tragedies are often about the fate of human heroes, he focused on the human response to the gods as well as accepting the principles of the gods. The heroes of the play usually has an extraordinary career that pushes the boudoirs for what a human can do, these are strong characters such as the character if Antigone who pushes the boundaries of the law and accepts her fate of death.