Antigone

“In world literature no dissent from mundanity has been more trenchant than Antigone’s”.
This is the story of a girl who challenged the state and invited death as she could not abide with mediocrity and conformity. There is triumph & disaster, kindness & cruelty and love & hate all intricately woven together in this masterpiece. This is one of the major dramas of our time, translated into Irish for the first time and produced by the newly formed theatre company, Splódar.

Jean Anouilh Jean Anouilh was born in Bordeaux in 910. His father was a tailor and his mother was a professional violinist. He studied law in Paris and worked in the advertising industry for a time. His first drama was staged in 1932 but it was with the plays Le voyageur sans baggage (Traveller without baggage) and Le bal des voleurs (Carnival of Thieves) that he achieved fame. Some of his other famous plays were La Valse des Toreadors, L’Aloutte, Pauvre Bitos and La petite Moliere. He wrote Antigone in 1942 and it was first performed in 1944 while Paris was occupied by the Germans. Apparently the play was permitted because the Germans approved of Creon’s opinions on dictatorship. On the other hand, the Resistance regarded the young girl Antigone as a heroine opposing the German invasion of the country. Anouilh married the actress Monelle Valentin in 1931 but they separated some years later. He died in 1987.