Some of this mix seems satirical in intent, but mostly it makes the storyline unnecessarily muddy. The design, as well, is simultaneously clunky for the actors to interact with and beautifully abstract (set by Michael Stepowany, lights by Marianne Meadows). The approach to the acting wavers between a sort of serious-faced clowning – such as with the unfunny inept kung fu of the Security Guard (Joe Palka) – and earnestly down-to-earth drama, the latter of which is played superbly by Davy and Litman with able support from the ensemble. They all are plenty relevant to the plot, but something in Scena’s presentation loses the thread. Yet this plot – which, while ethically thorny, is fairly straightforward – is interrupted, and made confusing, by interludes with two semi-reflective Killers (creepily convincing Bob Sheire and Stas Wronka), a visitation from a would-be gravedigger from Heidelberg (Colin Davies), and other side characters. Some, like her beloved former professor, blind Master Guido (Kim Curtis), wish to protect her from the danger she invites by standing in the way of big capitalist development others, like her ex-lover Phillip (Joseph Carlson), want to take advantage of the situation to achieve their own desires and, of course, there is the Mayor and his agents, who wish to see Clara give up her peculiarly traditionalist claim on the gravesite for the good of the community. We will see Clara progress through a series of confrontations with people who have other concerns than preserving her brother’s burial site. Stas Wronka, Colin Davies, and Bob Sheire in Antigone Now at Scena Theatre (Photo Credit: Jae Yi Photography) It’s hard to say how much of this is due to director Robert McNamara favoring broad comedy and distractingly random stage-dives during this scene, versus how much is due to the script’s blunt approach to exposition, but either way it will prove to contrast with the real meat of the play: high-stakes arguments. We learn of this conflict first from a chorus of international tourists, broad stereotypes of Americans, Brits, Germans, and so forth, in an opening scene that suggests a completely different kind of play than the one we end up seeing. All the other plots’ owners have already had their deceased relocated, leaving only Antigone in the way of commercial development. In Flisar’s version, Antigone is now Clara (Danielle Davy), her uncle the Mayor (Ron Litman), and the key difference is that her brother is already buried – but the Mayor wants his remains moved, so that the cemetery can be replaced with a golf course and hotel, bringing hundreds of jobs to their impoverished, unnamed Mediterranean town. The ancient Antigone story figures on a simple conflict – her uncle, King Creon, will not allow her to bury her brother, and she defies him. Kim Curtis and Danielle Davy in Antigone Now at Scena Theatre (Photo Credit: Jae Yi Photography) Scena Theatre’s production is unfortunately tangled and confusing, but Flisar’s moral questing shines through all the same. While many playwrights attempt to “modernize” ancient myths by simply replacing a sword with a gun or a Trojan War with an Iraq War, in a sort of surface-level Mad Libs approach, Slovenian master writer Evald Flisar cuts past that to find a core of tragedy. The title of this play is also its purpose – to show us what the ancient Greek tragedy of Antigone would look like in modern times, and locate its deeper meaning across the centuries.
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