A review by vjose2000
Antigone by Jean Anouilh

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I'm a little obsessed with this play at the moment. I'm reading this after having read Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie which is based on Sophocles's Antigone and I wanted to get to grips more with the original story. I know this isn't a proper translation of the original but it's own thing but I kept seeing snippets of it in places and I thought the dialogue was beautiful and reading the whole thing it didn't disappoint. For me Antigone is about what is owed to the people around us. Does the rights of a citizen become void if they have turned against the state? How far should we go to uphold our beliefs and our principles? What does it mean to be a leader in a time of turmoil? I think the play keeps these questions rotating in your mind especially by portraying Creon a little sympathetically. You're so easily falling into the trap of the rationality of Creon's arguments and torment over being King when he never wanted to be that sometimes you forget that Antigone is right even though she is sometimes portrayed as more unreasonable. The whole thing kind of keeps you guessing as to the minds of these two characters. I also really particularly enjoyed the use of the chorus and the anachronisms especially the musings on the nature of a tragedy