Antigone (Archive)

by Jean Anouilh

October 1982

Antigone was first produced in Paris in 1942, when France was part of Hitler’s Europe and dictators and stormtroops were the background of everyday life. Based on the Antigone of Sophocles, which was first performed in Athens in the 5th century B.C., its theme was nevertheless topical, for in Antigone’s repeated “No!” to Creon, the French audience saw its own resistance to the German occupation, and the Germans allowed the play to be performed presumably because they found Creon’s arguments for dictatorship convincing.

Antigone was first presented in Great Britain in 1949 by the Old Vic Theatre Company, and included Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in the cast.

Cast

Chorus Colin Colgan
Antigone Sue Howe
Nurse Hazel Galvin
Ismene Madeline Walley
Haemon Chris Rogers
Creon Martin Green
First Guard Mike Calvert
Second Guard David Allison
Third Guard Peter Staton
Messenger Time Newton
Page Paul West
Euridice Kathleen Allen

Crew

Producers Barry West and Chris Ward
Stage Manager Ian Squire
Lighting Mike Crisswell
Sound Chris Lawes
Prompt Chris Squire
Props Chris Sutton
Set Design Chris Sutton
House Manager Joy Trinder