The Not School Theater group got together via Skype last week to discuss Sophocles's play "Antigone", and members can now find our conversation over in the Free Stuff for Citizens section of the site. The roster on this one consisted of Carlos Franke, Phillip Cherny, Mark Linsenmayer, Michael Rissman and myself.
Trying to get a toehold on the play's philosophical aspects, we talked a little about existentialist ethics, the concept of justice, power dynamics between the state and citizens, and about ancient Greece in general. Later on, we debated a bit about Antigone's motives. One of her speeches contains a few severe statements about her dedication to her brother that seem to call into question the commitment to justice that she expresses throughout the rest of the play. Apparently those statements have been provoking controversy among readers for a long time; according to translator Robert Fagles, Goethe refused to believe that they were even written by Sophocles.
Up next for the group will be Antonin Artaud's The Theater and Its Double
- Daniel Cole
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