Last weekend, book lovers convened in the seat of justice in
Brooklyn to discuss a play translated, adapted, and performed in countless
iterations: Antigone, which comes to BAM in a new translation by Anne Carson September 24—October 4. In the ornate Borough
Hall courtroom, philosopher Bonnie Honig and playwright Ellen McLaughlin joined
performer Kaneza Schaal to discuss the play.
by Nora Tjossem
Approaching Antigone from a philosophical standpoint, Honig kicked off the event by proposing lamentation as political action—the eponymous character not as martyr, but as activist. McLaughlin introduced the piece as “perfect theater,” living on in such works as The Island, a two-man, play-within-a-play performance of Antigone set in South Africa, and her own Kissing the Floor, an adaptation set in the Depression era US.
All of the great classical tragedians were veterans, Honig explained. In a society always at war, theater was a venue for veterans to speak to one another. The agon, a dialogue constituting the simplest structure of theater, is also the model for democracy and threads throughout Antigone as an unresolved struggle between characters. If someone is “winning,” the panelists agreed, you may be reading it wrong.
Despite shared beginnings, theater and democracy have at
times stood in opposition—in fact, Antigone
itself can be studied as a response to the political silencing of women’s public
mourning. An aristocratic practice, long and ostentatious funeral events take
on a class dimension, raising politically salient questions of how to mourn.
We are still confronted by bereavement as a political act: occupy
ourselves with mourning, or spur ourselves into action and advocacy for the
living? Schaal invoked examples of the AIDS epidemic and the widely
disseminated images of Emmett Till, a boy lynched in Mississippi in the 1940s
whose mother shared the images with the media as well as allowing an open
casket.
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Honig, McLaughlin, and Schaal discuss Antigone. Photo: Beowulf Sheehan |
The ambiguity of mourning as personal and political,
commendable and condemnable, is at the core of Sophocles’ tragedy. Introducing
the possibility that Antigone’s sister, Ismene, first buried their disgraced
brother in secret, followed by Antigone’s loud public mourning, Honig argues
for the complexity of the two women’s stances on preserving both life and
death. While the two sisters are often posed as respectively pro-life and
pro-death, Honig’s claims expose even more tragedy. The suffering of the two
women is not simplistic.
McLaughlin added that the obligation felt by both women is because
the family was plagued by incest (Antigone, Ismene, and their brothers are all children-siblings
of Oedipus). This adds a horrifying element that complicates their view of
justice and amplifies the pain of their situation. “No one wants to be
Antigone,” McLaughlin claimed. “The only people who want to be these characters
are actors—and that’s because we want to be them and then go home and have a
nice dinner.”
Antigone, in a new
translation by Anne Carson, is at the BAM Harvey Theater September 24—October 4. Tickets are currently not available online due to limited seating.
Please contact BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 to purchase tickets.
Nora Tjossem is BAM's Humanities & Educations Events Intern.
Nora Tjossem is BAM's Humanities & Educations Events Intern.
So, very well written. Bravo, Nora!
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