Antigone

In the translation by Walter Jens
An adaption by Lilja Rupprecht and Meike Schmitz

"Not to be an enemy, no, to be a friend, I was born."

The war for Thebes is over. The enemy Argos has been defeated. The battlefield is strewn with corpses. Among them are the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices, who killed each other fighting for the throne. The new ruler of Thebes is Creon. As his first official act, he orders that Eteocles be buried, but that Polyneices, whom he regards as an enemy of the state, be left unburied outside the gates of the city to rot. Violation of his decree is punishable by death. It is Antigone, the sister of the two dead men, who goes against this order. She decides to follow the will of the Gods, as she believes that divine law is more powerful than human law, and buries her brother in the knowledge that she will pay for her actions with her own death.

In Sophocles’ tragedy, first performed about 2500 years ago, secular law is set against divine law, the interests of the state against sibling love, rationality against the heart. Antigone’s fate raises questions about responsibility, morality and the need to take individual action. Lilja Rupprecht, who recently directed Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov at the Deutsches Theater, will explore these questions together with actors from the RambaZamba Theater, the DT and a citizens’ choir.