More Antigone

So one of the major director choices that was made in our school's production of Antigone was the choice to make the entire show in the time period of Nazi Germany when Jean Anouilh actually wrote the play. I thought that this was great and really added a lot to the show. When the audience walked into the theater, they were first approached by actors in Nazi uniforms who would randomly search audience members or ask them questions. It was a little offsetting (which was the purpose) and really made one think about how we take for granted our ability to waltz into a theater and see whatever we would like. One thing that I wish was that the Nazi setting had been a bit more prominent. Since the director made the choice to put the play in the setting of the time, I wish that it had been taken even further. Even though I saw people getting searched, I, myself (nor any of the people that I was with) were searched or harassed, and the Nazis standing around were a little confusing. My roommate had also told me before I went to the show that there were people planted in the audience that were going to be searched and then kicked out. If I hadn't known this and been on the lookout for it, I would not have noticed it. But, since I knew that it was going to happen I watched for it and thought that this added a lot. It really transports the audience into a different world and different reality. The end of the show is what really worked, I thought. The actors all come out and take their bows and the audience is clapping, etc. for them, when an actress runs to the stage with flowers and the guards roughly stop her, and there is a great moment of tension between actors, Nazis, and the colonel/whoever the man was who was the Nazi watching the show (I forget his title). The way that the actors all left the stage glaring at the Nazis and completely unhappy and disgusted put an entire new level on top of the show itself. I thought this was a great choice and really let the audience see the hidden meanings behind Anouilh's version of the play and his commentary on the tyrannical government.