A modern version of Antigone. It consists of two parts, each character has two incarnations: one living in the present and one mythological, which is an archetype, a character’s progenitor living in a poetic timeless realm.
The first part takes place in the realistic world, in the institute of classical philology within a huge university. Intertwined monologic and dialogic forms are sometimes disrupted by choir parts and by lines delivered by archetypical characters from the original ancient myth. The main character, Antigone, despite having a young boyfriend Haemon, has a romantic liaison with one of the Ph. D. students (Polynices). When the lovers are finally exposed, the director of the institute – Creon – decides to expel Polynices from the university, in spite of Antigone’s and her sister Ismene’s fierce protests. His decision will have tragic consequences, predicted by the plain janitor called Tiresias.
This complex play is based on a contemporary free verse and colloquial speech; its main focus lies in the matters of corporeality and how it is bounded by the cultural rules, behavioural patterns and language (in this case represented by the academic society). This factors constrain the body and impede realizing its full potential. Words overrule the matter, suppress the desire and the intuitive need of love – shared also by the ancient Antigone, who, all in all, “was born to share love, not hate”. Those two realities cannot be merged together, they will always be distant from each other, even antagonistic. To quote Michel Foucault: “The soul is the prison of the body”.