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Antigone
AntigoneCompany: Groundlings Ensemble
Duration: 60 minutes
Playwrights Theatre Centre
Three women pay homage to the Chorus in an original adaptation of Sophocles’ classical Greek tragedy, Antigone, from a translation by Ian Johnston. This collectively adapted performance art piece follows the story of the ill-fated offspring of Oedipus. Each character’s journey flows from voice to voice and body to body creating a harmony of story in a trio of bodies.
Showtimes
Sep 4 – 8:15 PM
Sep 6 – 2:15 PM
Sep 8 – 7:45 PM
Sep 11 – 7:15 PM
Sep 13 – 7:00 PM
Sep 14 – 3:00 PM
Read the Plank Review.
Reviews
12/31/2008 - 11:23am
12/29/2008 - 5:40pm
12/29/2008 - 2:02pm
12/17/2008 - 5:19pm
Plank Thots
Ignatieff: he likes culture!
12/11/2008 - 4:10pm
Character by Association #4: getting the playwright off my back
11/20/2008 - 5:05pm
Character by Association #3: is this fucking poetry?
11/19/2008 - 3:48pm
Character by Association #2
11/05/2008 - 6:04am
Comments
monotone, monotone...too monotone
First of all, i really think they all deserve a big hand to be able to stand in from of an audience and perform and to memorize all those lines and to direct themselves.
i did like the movement and dancing on the stage….i just felt that it was wayy to monotone. after 15 minutes, i too was very ansy…i actually left after 1/2 hour…it felt like i was there for 2 hours. i did get a mean look from the usher..sorry, i just couldn’t sit there for another minute.
But….to each is their own and perhaps there is a crowd for this type of play and others will appreciate it.
Thank you!
Thank you to the trio for their feisty production of Antigone…......A great change of pace from the ‘so-called comedy’ that characterizes the Vancouver fringe….......a powerful Greek play in the mix – wonderful. Yes….there are different types of audiences and we don’t all want to see a monochrome Fringe…..Thank you, citizens of Thebes.
Huh?
I am not sure if Jeff Hoffman is on crack or just stupid.
Not that the show didn’t have it’s decent moments – but to call this a cathartic experience? Please!
Alright, so you walk into the theatre, see three attractive women standing in the far right corner of the room. War drums are playing over top of the pa system. The show starts alright – but it’s more an excercise in bad psychical theatre than anything else.
Carmine Bernhardt at least adds some variances to her voice depending on what she’s doing but Linzi Voth is so one-note it’s boring. Vanessa Coley-Donahue makes little to no impact in her role.
So where does that leave us? Antsy in our seats after 15 minutes.
So where’s the good? (I am GoodGuy/BadGuy after all) – I loved the physicality of the piece, all three women are extremely agile and this made for some great stage pictures.
Perhaps it was the script. Just a boring story to begin with. Perhaps it was that the three women decided to “Direct” themselves – perhaps an outside pair of eyes would’ve seen that just how much work this piece needed.
The Pride of Dionysus
If Sophocles gazes from the next life and Dionysus peers from above, then they must surely be pleased.
These three girls bring to astonishing life a world long since gone, but far from dead. From the moment I walked in and saw the three of them, with pure dedication to their roles standing in the corner, I knew I was in for a remarkably Cathartic experience.
I had no idea just how Cathartic it would be.
Carmine, whether she was the noble princess Antigone or the elderly blind seer Teiresias, hurled her entire self into the roles and one could not help but be absolutely enthralled to the core of their being with her performance, which shone from an equal depth.
Vanessa shone, whether as Haemon, the poor frightened Ismene or the stoic, unflinching gaze of destiny itself. Her usage of her body, in the beautiful and athletic prowess of great dancers, brought a life to any and all chorus parts she performed.
And I have never seen, nor do I think I ever will see, a performance of Tragic Greek Royalty as I saw in Linzi Voth. The arrogant dignity, chinked and ultimately destroyed, of Creon, was completely flawless. Even in the difference of sex and lack of realistic setting, I believed I was watching the old ruler of Thebes destroyed, and I couldn’t have turned my gaze if I tried.
But more than I could praise any of these three girls individually, I must praise how the three of them have worked together with more synergetic energy. Everything was wonderfully staged, and nothing whatsoever was lost in the translation from the Ancient Greek Theatre of Dionysus to the Playwrights Theatre Centre on Granville Island.
If anyone seeks a true cultural experience and a display of brilliant ensemble and individual acting at this year’s Fringe Festival, I highly recommend The Groundling Ensemble’s Antigone.
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