Plays by women make up the entire season at Columbia's Rep Stage. You can see the work of five cutting-edge women playwrights in one night in Antigone Project: A Play in 5 Parts -- an exhilarating, updated look at Sophocles’ tragedy.
Antigone Project revisits the Fifth Century, B.C., character who remains one of the most liberated women in dramatic literature. Joseph W. Ritsch's smart, fluid direction moves the action swiftly from one short play to another. His wordless prologue introduces characters and establishes tone. And designer James Fouchard's war-zone set becomes locations ranging from a surfers' beach to the Underworld.
A quick refresher: Antigone is one of four offspring of Oedipus' incestuous marriage to his mother. After Antigone's two brothers kill each other in battle, her uncle, the king, forbids her to bury the brother who led the rebels. But Antigone puts duty to her brother ahead of duty to her country. She's determined to bury him – even though it will mean her own death.
Chiori Miyagawa's Red Again, takes place mostly in the Underworld, after the double suicide of Antigone and her fiancé. Antigone's brother has been killed by police, as a result of racial profiling. Back among the living, Antigone's sister is being "relocated" to Treblinka.
Shannon L. Graham gives a wrenching portrayal of this frightened young woman, whose anguished speeches also mention Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda and Afghanistan. That's a lot of references for a brief play, but Red Again paints a devastating picture of man's continuing barbarity.
And, there is an unexpected hopeful note at the end.
In Tanya Barfield's smaller but moving play, Medallion, an African-American laundress (portrayed with implacable determination by Kelly (Renee Armstrong) visits the office of Jonathan Feuer's stern white general at the end of World War I.
Her brother died a hero. But she has nothing to memorialize him – not his body, not even a medal.
Antigone and sister Ismene lounge on a beach, ogling surfers in Karen Hartman's "Hang Ten."
But it’s no "day at the beach"; they’re under constant surveillance. As in Sophocles, Ismene plays it safe and urges rebellious Antigone to do the same. Ismene just wants to marry, settle down and forget her dysfunctional family. The other two contributions are less effective.
Set during a museum tour, Antigone Arkhe, by Caridad Svich, has some clever elements. But it's overwhelmed by its busy, multi-media approach.
Lynn Nottage chooses modern-day Africa for "A Stone's Throw." She changes Antigone's crime to adultery – punishable by stoning.
It's a tragically topical issue, but too tangential to its source.
Antigone Project was conceived in response to the 2001 Patriot Act – seen by many as infringing individual rights. It’s an issue resurfacing again now in the Apple-FBI privacy dispute. If that's not timely enough, at one point a character makes the papal-like recommendation, build "a bridge not a wall" -- further proof of the immediacy of these five modern takes on an ancient Greek tragedy, splendidly rendered at Rep Stage.