We are currently in rehearsals for “Antigone”, next up on the mainstage.  MET Ensemble Member and playwright, Reiner Prochaska (The Canterbury Tales) has taken on the task of adapting the classic greek tragedy.  Following the suggestion of director Julie Herber, Reiner has created a moving and thought provoking version of this popular play,  The production  follows our protagonist, Antigone through a journey of time and place as her story unfolds; mixing elements of greek drama and a modern sentiment.  The amazing cast includes Devin Gaither (A Clockwork Orange, Dracula), Ashley Hall (Boeing, Boeing, Dracula), Joe Jalette (A Clockwork Orange, The Canterbury Tales), Karen Paone (A Clockwork Orange, Boeing, Boeing, The Canterbury Tales), Reiner Prochaska (Why Torture is Wrong, A Clockwork Orange, Dracula, The Canterbury Tales), Bill Stitely (The Canterbury Tales, Dracula)  and Vanessa Strickland (Why Torture is Wrong, A Clockwork Orange, Dracula).

The story of Antigone is a popular subject for writers throughout the world.  The characters and plot can be found a variety of versions and adaptations throughout time.  Here is a sampling of 10 of them:

  1. The Antigone, one of the three Theban plays by Sophocles (497 BC – 406 BC) – The most famous adaptation
  2. Antigone, play by Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)
  3. “Antigone-Legend”, for soprano and piano (text by Bertolt Brecht), by Frederic Rzewski (b. 1938)
  4. 1946 – Jean Anouilh, (modern French translation)
  5. The Island“, play by Athol Fugard (b. 1932) Set against the backdrop of South African apartheid in the ‘70s
  6. Antigone, opera by Mark Alburger (b. 1957)
  7. The Burial at Thebes by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney
  8. Tegonni, An African Antigone by Nigerian writer Femi Osofisan (b. 1946)
  9. Antígona Vélez (1950) adaptation of Sophocles’ play by Argentinean writer Leopoldo Marechal (1900–1970)
  10. Antigone, comic book by David Hopkins (b. 1977)
Maryland Ensemble Theatre