Epic Theater

Take one scene from Sophocles’ Antigone or Anne Carson’s Antigonik, and rewrite it in a Brechtian epic form. You can re-write the drama – or you can describe what you would do to change what happens on stage as if you were a director.

In this past week’s reading, “The Modern Theater is the Epic Theater” (p171-172) of the Brecht text in Krasner, there is a table showing the changes in emphasis between dramatic and epic theater. Use the information on the chart to assist this assignment. Finally, write one paragraph describing what you changed and why.

PROLOGUE

ANTIGONE and ISMENE enter. Characters serve as their own narrators: when they speak of themselves in third person, a colored light casts overhead.

ANTIGONE

Enter Antigone. Tragic heroine, so they say. Scrappy and self-righteous. Few would call

her beautiful, but that’s okay, she doesn’t mind, she’d much rather be ethical, virtuous,

determined, tenacious, unyielding, even.

ISMENE

Enter Ismene, gliding, graceful, cloud-like, heavenly.

ANTIGONE/ISMENE

They are sisters; they stem from the same bloodline; they are --

ANTIGONE

-- Antipodes. Antithesis. Antipoles.

ISMENE

-- Different.

White light.

ANTIGONE

Ismene, dear sister,

You would think that we had already suffered enough

For the curse on Oedipus:

I cannot imagine any grief

That you and I have not gone through. And now -

Have they told you of the new decree of our King Creon?

Color.

ISMENE

Ismene is tired. So tired. Still beautiful, even at her most tired.

White light.

ISMENE

Antigone,

I have heard nothing: I know

That two sisters lost two brothers, a double death

In a single hour; and I know that the Argive army

Fled in the night; but beyond this, nothing.

Color.

ANTIGONE

Antigone grows tired of exposition.

White light.

ANTIGONE

Ismene, there is something we must do.

ISMENE

Why do you speak so strangely?

ANTIGONE

Listen, Ismene:

CREON enters. Red.

CREON

Enter Creon -

Who buried your brother Eteocles

With military honors, gave him a soldier’s funeral,

And it was right that I should --

ANTIGONE

-- but Polyneices,

They fought as bravely and died as miserably, --

They say that Creon has sworn:

CREON

No one shall bury him, no one mourn for him -- This body must lie in the fields, a sweet treasure

For carrion birds to find as they search for food.

I am here to announce it publicly; and the penalty --

Stoning to death I the public square

ANTIGONE

So prove what you are:

A true sister, or a traitor to your family.

Antigone is mad.

CREON

Antigone is mad.

CREON exits.

ISMENE

Antigone, you are mad! What could I possibly do?

ANTIGONE

You must decide whether you will help me or not.

Color.

ISMENE

Ismene understands.

White light.

ISMENE

I do not understand. Help you in what?

ANTIGONE

I am going to bury him. Will you come?

ISMENE

Bury him! You have just said the new law forbids it.

Color.

ANTIGONE

The choice is clear. Morals must move men. And sadness drives this woman. Empathy, sympathy, understanding -

White light.

ANTIGONE

He is my brother. And he is your brother, too.

ISMENE Think of the danger! Think of what Creon will do!

ANTIGONE Creon is not enough to stand in my way.

Brechtian epic theater aims to alienate its viewers from the scene, while simultaneously encouraging them to formulate decisions about the characters, narrative, and the human condition. Without immersing its audience in the play, it inspires introspection and reflection. I have rewritten this scene from Antigonik in order to emphasize the detachment between the actors and their characters as they call upon the audience to question their flaws. Characters announce their own entrances and dissect their own characters. In short, the role of chorus in dramatic theater has been amplified and given to Antigone and Ismene in this re-written prologue. I inserted Creon into the scene as well, who now tells his own story with the lines originally given by Antigone: he delivers his own exposition.