Αntigone Lonely Planet @The Public Theater, Νew York

Can Sophocles’ playwright Antigone be staged as a comedy. Can it be done?

If we had to think of one person who could turn an ancient Greek tragedy into a satire, a person with a larger-than-life persona, that person would be Lena Kitsopoulou!

Taking part of the stage are a group of singers who mimic an ancient chorus, while the director sets out to graft moments of a comical and desperate “past and present” onto the Sophoclean myth.

Driven by the relevance of ancient drama, Kitsopoulou notes that “Whatever aspect of our contemporary reality someone chooses to analyze, they will inevitably come face to face with ancient tragedies”, and from this perspective, characters like Antigone, Creonte and Haimon all share fears and anxieties with us, ensconced here in our unbearably lonely world.

In her most recent work, Kitsopoulou’s Antigone remains drawn to the motifs of human madness and loneliness; as she expresses, “We have nothing else: everything else is just lies.”

However, Kitsopoulou’s satire nestles beneath the existential angst, and vice versa, as it is driven by a need to poke fun at herself and to view reality through a distorting prism as she seeks “a trace of truth” in comedy. She mentions she doesn’t force comedy, rather acknowledges that “It’s a form of despair and a way of not feeling guilty about my baser side.”

TEXT & DIRECTION Lena Kitsopoulou

PERFORMERS Petros Georgopalis, Nikoleta Grimeki, Lena Kitsopoulou, Sofia Kokkali, Andreas Kontopoulos, Vassilis Safos, Yannis Tsortekis

SETS & COSTUMES DESIGN Elli Papageorgakopoulou

LIGHTING DESIGN  Nikos Vlassopoulos

SOUND DESIGN Kostas Bokos

ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR Christos Christopoulos

ASSISTANT SETS & COSTUMES Dimitris Aggelis

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Polyplanity Productions – Yolanda Markopoulou & Vicky Strataki.

PRODUCED BY Onassis Stegi

CREDITS OF THE FILM SCREENED DURING THE SHOW:

SCRIPT & DIRECTION Lena Kitsopoulou

OPERATOR Aggelos Papadopoulos

event info

Saturday, April 20, 2019

2:00-4:00pm

Shiva Theater at The Public Theater

Tickets start at $35