La Boite opened its 2026 season with an adaptation of Sophocles’ “Antigone”, a play about power, its deadly impact and how some people confront it.
The story is still relevant 2,500 years later.
Antigone and her sister Ismene are the daughters and half-sisters of Oedipus Rex. Their brothers kill each other in a civil war, and the incoming king, their uncle Creon, logically decides that the brother who died defending Thebes should be buried with full military honours and the other brother, who attacked the kingdom, should be left to rot in the fields.
Seems logical, right? But that treasonous brother was part of a family. And his sisters still loved him as a brother. Antigone didn’t want to leave her brother’s body unburied. She shares her intention, unplanned at the time, with Ismene, who advises her to stick to the law. “Just do as the King says.”
But Antigone is a princess. She stamps her foot and says she’ll bury him alone if Ismene won’t help.
So we have a woman, alone, taking on power.
The King has issued the order, so if he lets his niece go against his instruction, he’ll be emasculated. It’s not going to happen. Pride and power are a heady mix.
The tension between belief in the afterlife, with its intricate requirements for humans, and adherence to human power is played out before us. But death means different things to different people. In the end, Antigone accepts that death is the consequence of her unwavering decision, and Creon is left to confront the fact that he did not obey his promise to Oedipus to look at the girls.
Which power prevails? One’s love of family and the impact of human tragedy? Or the civil law and order that is subject to changes over time?
Can you see now why this play is relevant today?
Courtney Stewart and Nigel Poulton co-directed the play, placing it in the round on a setting that created a circular stage. Overhead was a shallow funnel through which the earth fell to bury the corpse of Antigone’s brother. Actors entered and left the set from different directions, using the stairs among the audience to great effect for kingly pronouncements. The audience was left to use our imagination about the weapons used and their impact. The set and costumes were both designed by Josh McIntosh.
Being a Greek tragedy, the pace could have been a little slower. And, with a slower pace, actors could have used their voice to much greater effect. It felt a little too much like an ad for something. There was a lightness that didn’t belong to the subject matter. The declaration by Antigone naming the modern women who have worked to bring the “power within” to quelch the “power over” was thrown off a little too quickly, losing much of its impact.
And the tragedy of the death of Creon’s son, as well as that of his niece, seemed to slide off a bit at the end. I suspect the only thing missing was good voice projection by the actors, inhabiting the depth of the paradox faced by those who wield power.
The standout performance was by Billy Fogarty who magically became Ismene, Haimon (Creon’s son), Teiresias (the wise man), and a Sentry. His transitions were seamless, and I was left to question whether it was indeed one actor playing so many parts, his performances were so convincing. Maddison Burridge played Antigone, and Hayden Spencer, Creon. Three actors created a time, a place, passion, power and despair.
Definitely worth a visit. See: https://laboite.com.au/shows/antigone for tickets.
This thoughtful first play bodes well for the 2026 season at La Boite.
Kerry McGovern
