Reviews

Sophocles' Antigone (3rd Version)

Tomee Theater Company;
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Garage Theatre
August 1999

The main characteristic of the group's work for this performance is in my view the investigation of the body. The human body in all its expressive aspects as vehicle of emotional but also intellectual experience predominates the director's work.

Having met Maria Panoutsou about fifteen years ago, I am not surprised that her approach of Greek Tragedy is so sensitive to the actor's body and to all experience concerning this body or originating from this body. I remember that this was always the intention of her projects in performance and theatre education. As a result, the clarity of the scenes' structure is amazing as well as the transmitting of the text expressing both Dionysiac ecstasies and rational understanding of Sophocles' drama.

The other main feature of the performance is, I think, the intellectuality manifested in the conception of each particular scene: as a spectator who expects some sort of philosophical interpretation of tragedy I was happy to discover during the performance strong moments of thought not only in the director's mind but also being understood and elaborated deeply by the actors continuously during the process.

This dense sophisticated background of Tomee's work, together with the simplicity and clarity of the forms, created for me a singular and important theatre experience that brought ancient Greek drama up to the contemporary world with a manifest educational impact and political and aesthetic originality and meaningfulness.

Reviewed by Anna Lazou
Researcher in Theater and Philosophy
Athens University

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