A Review by Ryan Malloy “Antigone” - A tragedy by Sophocles Thetford Academy’s Fall Play Class, through November 23
Part 1
“Antigone” was written by Sophocles around the time of 441 b.c. This is a play about a sister who wants nothing more than for her brother to be buried, even though the king had a death sentence for anyone that tries. Her brother was killed by his own brother in the heat of battle, and was left unburied on the battlefield as a punishment for betraying the kingdom. Thetford Academy’s version of Antigone displays all of this very well by setting each scene in a manner that best represents the tone that they are trying to get across.
As you walk into the theater you are given a program detailing the cast of the night’s performance, with the two biggest roles of Antigone played by senior Emily Trage, and King Creon, played by junior Dylan Moody-Aness. As the lights dim and the stage goes dark you watch while all of the actors walk on stage and take their starting positions. When the lights turn on we see senior Jordan Smith playing the narrator at center stage. She discusses what we are about to witness as we watch this play, the roles of each character, and how they got to this point. Throughout this time you could sense that the audience was interested from the start, as there is no movement or talking and all eyes are on the stage.
One thing that I did not like about this play was the lack of set change that happens. Throughout the entire play the set doesn’t change, with a total of six pillars in a semi circle around the stage, making a very dominant point for your eye to look at the center of the stage. In between a few of these pillars are a couple of pieces of wood covered by a net, I am still unsure of why they had this, since it added no obvious element to any of the scenes. Inside of the semi circle were two benches on both the left and right sides of the stage, and on the right side very close to the audience sat a little table on the floor that has a brown cloth on it, and a bucket of water. I found the fact that there was no set change made it very hard to follow where the scene was at the time. It began in a garden, then went to being inside of the kingdom, and lastly to the king being inside of the cave, and without any set change, I found the play a little confusing.
Throughout the play there were many places when the actors did a great job displaying their characters, but there is one place in the show that was really well represented. That was when Antigone (Emily Trage) and King Creon (Dylan Moody) are having a big fight and all of a sudden Dylan grabs Emily by the arms and pushes her to the floor. With almost a dive, Emily falls on the floor face first, making it look very convincing that it was out of the blue and not scripted. One thing that helped make this scene convincing was the look of fear that was on Emily's face as she rose back up from the ground, and the fact that she really didn’t use her hands to catch her fall making it look even more like Dylan had shoved her unintentionally.
Of all of the actors, Emily Trage did an outstanding job throughout her entire performance playing Antigone. Even when the audience was distracting or would laugh, or when you could see some of the others actor begin to crack under the pressure, Emily didn’t look nervous and really got into her character. She didn’t once break character, forget lines, speak too fast, or under enunciate her words making her hard to understand. She did an outstanding job.
The Fall Play class put together a good show, although there were definitely some things I would have changed, such as the set. I would have changed it according to the scene, where they were at the time, and what atmosphere was trying to be displayed at that time. I also would have tried to cut down some of the scene sizes by taking things out, and giving some other rolls to other people. A huge chunk of the play is spent with King Creon and Antigone arguing over whether she should be put to death, and after a while I noticed my mind start to wander, and that the audience seemed to lose focus on what was going on. Other than that, all the actors in Antigone did a great job!
A Review by Ryan Malloy
ReplyDelete“Antigone” - A tragedy by Sophocles
Thetford Academy’s Fall Play Class, through November 23
Part 1
“Antigone” was written by Sophocles around the time of 441 b.c. This is a play about a sister who wants nothing more than for her brother to be buried, even though the king had a death sentence for anyone that tries. Her brother was killed by his own brother in the heat of battle, and was left unburied on the battlefield as a punishment for betraying the kingdom. Thetford Academy’s version of Antigone displays all of this very well by setting each scene in a manner that best represents the tone that they are trying to get across.
As you walk into the theater you are given a program detailing the cast of the night’s performance, with the two biggest roles of Antigone played by senior Emily Trage, and King Creon, played by junior Dylan Moody-Aness. As the lights dim and the stage goes dark you watch while all of the actors walk on stage and take their starting positions. When the lights turn on we see senior Jordan Smith playing the narrator at center stage. She discusses what we are about to witness as we watch this play, the roles of each character, and how they got to this point. Throughout this time you could sense that the audience was interested from the start, as there is no movement or talking and all eyes are on the stage.
One thing that I did not like about this play was the lack of set change that happens. Throughout the entire play the set doesn’t change, with a total of six pillars in a semi circle around the stage, making a very dominant point for your eye to look at the center of the stage. In between a few of these pillars are a couple of pieces of wood covered by a net, I am still unsure of why they had this, since it added no obvious element to any of the scenes. Inside of the semi circle were two benches on both the left and right sides of the stage, and on the right side very close to the audience sat a little table on the floor that has a brown cloth on it, and a bucket of water. I found the fact that there was no set change made it very hard to follow where the scene was at the time. It began in a garden, then went to being inside of the kingdom, and lastly to the king being inside of the cave, and without any set change, I found the play a little confusing.
I really like how detailed this critique is. I agree with your opinion on the lack of set changes. I thought it made the play become kind of boring.
DeletePart 2
ReplyDeleteThroughout the play there were many places when the actors did a great job displaying their characters, but there is one place in the show that was really well represented. That was when Antigone (Emily Trage) and King Creon (Dylan Moody) are having a big fight and all of a sudden Dylan grabs Emily by the arms and pushes her to the floor. With almost a dive, Emily falls on the floor face first, making it look very convincing that it was out of the blue and not scripted. One thing that helped make this scene convincing was the look of fear that was on Emily's face as she rose back up from the ground, and the fact that she really didn’t use her hands to catch her fall making it look even more like Dylan had shoved her unintentionally.
Of all of the actors, Emily Trage did an outstanding job throughout her entire performance playing Antigone. Even when the audience was distracting or would laugh, or when you could see some of the others actor begin to crack under the pressure, Emily didn’t look nervous and really got into her character. She didn’t once break character, forget lines, speak too fast, or under enunciate her words making her hard to understand. She did an outstanding job.
The Fall Play class put together a good show, although there were definitely some things I would have changed, such as the set. I would have changed it according to the scene, where they were at the time, and what atmosphere was trying to be displayed at that time. I also would have tried to cut down some of the scene sizes by taking things out, and giving some other rolls to other people. A huge chunk of the play is spent with King Creon and Antigone arguing over whether she should be put to death, and after a while I noticed my mind start to wander, and that the audience seemed to lose focus on what was going on. Other than that, all the actors in Antigone did a great job!